Metocean Data Needs Assessment and Data Collection Strategy Development for the Massachusetts Wind Energy Area

MassCEC commissioned AWS TruePower to prepare a report intended to increase current knowledge about the meteorological and oceanographic (metocean) conditions within the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s (BOEM) designated Massachusetts Wind Energy Area (MAWEA) and the Rhode Island/Massachusetts (RI/MA) Wind Energy Area.

Accurate metocean data are required to make critical decisions during the planning, construction, and operation of offshore wind projects. The final report provides recommendations for new metocean data collection activities most likely to reduce project development risks, accelerate project deployment timeframes and increase opportunities for advanced offshore wind research. The report also:

Provides a high-level inventory of current and historical metocean data collection activities and publicly available data products in and around the WEAs;
Identifies information gaps and the most critical metocean data needs to support offshore wind energy applications within the WEAs;
Evaluates the attributes and costs of several metocean data collection scenarios to address identified data needs, including fixed-bottom meteorological towers and floating profiling lidar systems; and
Identifies key stakeholders and potential partnership opportunities that can accelerate the development and implementation of a metocean data collection and analysis program.