Future offshore wind energy evolution in the Bay of Biscay

Abstract

A relevant point near the Biscay Marine Energy Platform (BiMEP) has been chosen and data from the ERA5 reanalysis and CMIP6 datasets in future SSP5-85 scenario (wind and wave data) have been used to analyse the energy potential and its trends from 2015 to 2100 for wind energy. A 15 MW wind turbine has been chosen in line with current technological state-of-the-art and needs, and its energy production has been computed considering the corresponding power curve, and the wind speed at its hub height based on the variation of sea roughness due to the sea state (wave height and period). The results, although most of them have not been relevant, have shown a slightly downward trend mostly on winter in all parameters analysed: mean wave period (Tm), significant wave height (Hs), corresponding sea roughness (z0), and wind speed at hub height (Ux). The 15MW wind turbine simulation has therefore shown a small decrease in energy production.