Oriel Offshore Wind Farm Metocean Surveys

A range of environmental and technical surveys are required to provide developers with a suitable level of information to make informed decisions about site feasibility and  constraints, to underpin Environmental Impact Assessments and to inform engineering design for the offshore area, the proposed cable route and substation positioning. We have a long track record of working with Clients to develop appropriate solutions to monitoring of physical ocean parameters to ensure they meet their project objectives, provide robust bankable datasets and facilitate consenting through the regulatory process.

We specified a FLS200 floating lidar buoy to measure the near surface wind field at the Oriel site (to 245 m absl), with ancillary systems to measure waves, current profile and water temperature. We have a significant experience with this technology through an involvement in other commercial projects, and also during its journey through the Carbon Trust roadmap verification process. The equipment was deployed for a year from October 2019. The data availability of the system  varies by parameter; for wind parameters the buoy data return was in the range 93.4 to 99.1% for almost all of the wind parameters measured. The wind speed and direction measurements at 120 m above the sea surface returned a figure of 96.9%. These values, respectively, exceed the Carbon Trust Stage 3 KPIs for floating lidar systems.