ERI: Integration of Offshore Wind Energy and Marine Energy for Efficient Use of the Marine Space

As our planet faces climate change, one key aspect to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is the implementation of renewable energy to replace the use of fossil fuels. Renewable energy can be implemented in our oceans, which represent approximately 71 percent of our planet's surface, but proper implementation of renewable energy in the marine space is not trivial.

This Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) project supports research that attempts to address fundamental issues that can occur when producing electrical power within the perimeter of our marine space. As a rich source of invaluable natural resources to our society, the marine space deserves special treatment and attention. This project advances the field of power production in the marine space by addressing issues that can decrease energy production.

A rigorous investigation will be carried out on how to efficiently build, operate, and integrate offshore wind systems with other forms of marine energy, such as wave and tidal energy. A rich set of activities will be developed at the third most diverse university in the United States: University of Massachusetts Boston, including presentations at local high schools in low-income communities and community colleges.

The products of this project will be accessible to the public through an open-source format and will include easy-to-use, accessible analysis tools for optimizing marine energy production that will benefit a broad range of stakeholders, including students and professional engineers, energy analysts, investors, entrepreneurs, consultants, lawyers, economists, environmentalists, and biologists.

The prevailing technology worldwide for offshore wind farms is bottom-fixed based, constrained to water depths below 60m. More recently, floating wind turbine structures anchored with mooring lines have been developed to go beyond these water depth levels. Following these recent developments, the US Climate Action Plan has set a goal of deploying 15GW of floating wind energy by 2035.

When looking at areas suitable for these technologies, there is a significant concern about the effects of farm-to-farm interaction. On the US East Coast, most areas suitable for floating wind farms lie in the wake of areas suitable for fixed-bottom technologies. On the southern US coast, fixed-bottom suitable areas lie within the perimeter of the wake from upstream floating wind farms.

The power losses from the interaction between these wind farms could decrease the efficiency of using the marine space for power production. This research project aims to explore other alternatives for power production in areas where wake effects from upstream wind farms can be more significant. Under the umbrella of the recommendations from the US Climate Action Plan for increasing the use of marine energy, the synergies between offshore wind and marine energy will be evaluated, aiming for efficient integration of these power systems and reduced socioeconomic risks.

Our aim is to perform a rigorous evaluation of farm-to-farm wake interaction over a broad spectrum of possible scenarios for offshore wind development. Next, the areas affected by upstream wind farms, which might be less efficient for offshore wind but suitable for marine energy deployment, will be identified and tested as potential sites for implementation.

The open-source package released from this project will couple optimization with the offshore wind and marine energy analysis, researching optimal solutions for integrating offshore wind and marine energy systems through co-located hybrid power systems sharing the same marine area, grid connection, vessels for operation and maintenance procedures, and ports infrastructure.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.