Development of Offshore Wind Recommended Practice for US Waters

Abstract

Abstract The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), as a standards development organization, sponsored the development of recommended practices (RP) for offshore wind turbine facilities and published its RP report in 2012. The challenges faced by the emerging offshore wind energy industry parallel many of the challenges that were faced by the offshore oil and gas industry in its infancy. These challenges are documented and addressed in the development of the AWEA RP and are described in this paper. The paper discusses how the more mature American Petroleum Institute oil and gas standards were interfaced with International Electrotechnical Commission and other wind turbine and offshore industry standards to provide guidance for reliable engineering design practices of these mechanically dynamic, fatigue-driven offshore wind energy systems. Uncertainties requiring further validation and analysis are also described. Background There are a number of offshore wind energy projects at various stages of development for both the federal and state waters of the United States, but none have started construction. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that U.S. coastal waters have approximately 4,000 GW of gross offshore wind energy resources if all the resources over the waters from the shore out to 50 nautical miles out are included (Musial 2010). However, development of offshore wind resources in U.S. waters is in its nascent stages, and several barriers to deployment must be overcome before offshore wind energy can be successfully integrated into the electric energy generation mix at a large scale. Some of the barriers include immature infrastructure and supply chain, the need for further technology optimization, reliability concerns, and lack of uniform regulatory guidance on the design, installation, and operation of these facilities. The focus of this paper is to describe some of the industry efforts that have been devoted to providing guidance to inform developers, designers, and regulators on the application and applicability of existing standards.