Offshore Wind Energy Resource Siting

Over the last decade, it has been noted that offshore wind energy resource development could prove extensively valuable in many areas of our nation’s growth, including continued diversification of our energy supply, more options for cost-competitive electricity in coastal and Great Lakes regions, and economical stimulation through new and lasting infrastructure development. The challenges associated with this growth are based around 3 facets of developing the wind energy resource: 1) the relatively high cost of energy, 2) technical challenges surrounding installation and grid interconnection, and 3) permitting challenges related to the lack of site data and lack of experience with permitting processes for projects in both federal and state waters. SeaLandAire Technologies Inc., together with its partner, the Lockheed Martin Corporation, will seek to mitigate each challenge through effective site evaluation and characterization. We will conduct a full trade study during the Phase I to develop an optimized wind measurement strategy that will likely include getting data from both land based Wind Tracers and mobile buoy platforms equipped with meteorological sensor technology. Through the Phase I, we will develop a strategy that optimizes the cost, risk / data fidelity tradeoff that exists in coast energy resource evaluation.