Massachusetts Offshore Wind Metocean Initiative: Reducing risks and accelerating deployment timeframes via a coordinated regional observing system

Abstract

AWS Truepower (AWST) has been engaged by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) to provide monthly observed data summary reports for the wind resource monitoring equipment deployed on the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institutions Air-Sea Interaction Tower (ASIT) in support of MassCEC’s “Metocean Initiative” (the “Initiative”). The goal of the Initiative is to “advance planning and permitting and reduce the costs of offshore wind energy in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) designated Massachusetts Wind Energy Area (MAWEA) and the Rhode Island/Massachusetts (RI/MA) Wind Energy Area (together, the ‘WEAs’).” The data collected and developed during this campaign are planned to support characterization of the WEAs’ long-term wind resource and metocean design conditions.