TGS, a global provider of energy data and intelligence, has expanded its coverage of numerical weather prediction (NWP) model data. The latest model covers 400,000 km2 off the East Coast of the US, extending from Massachusetts to North Carolina. It was selected to inform and enhance wind resource assessment in the New York Bight Proposed Sale Notice areas.
This wind energy model has been produced in collaboration with weather-, environment-, and industrial-measurement firm Vaisala to create a higher-resolution data set publicly available with coverage of key offshore wind industry focus areas off the US coast.
The model results have been validated by publicly available measurements, including floating lidar data, to increase confidence and improve data quality compared with other industry data sets. It will be further enhanced with proprietary measurements later this year.
Wind developers and other industry stakeholders can compare their assessment of New York Bight areas with wind conditions over existing leases in their portfolio using this expansive high-resolution volume. This capability facilitates a baseline for future validation and post-award analysis.
TGS will include both US and Scotwind NWP models into a comprehensive atlas of public and proprietary wind data resources. Combined with TGS subsidiary 4COffshore’s market intelligence database, this provides a resource to enable rapid, accurate evaluation of available data in existing leases, especially for future auctions.
“Initial results reveal some interesting variations, spatial and temporal, which may impact various components of the wind farm design, construction, and energy output,” said Katja Akentieva, vice president of new energy solutions for the Western hemisphere at TGS.