Lecture on Floating Offshore Wind Farms

Wind power at sea.\Photo courtesy of Surfrider.

As part of the ongoing Research Seminars series, the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) will host Kaus Raghukumar, consulting oceanographer for Integral Consulting, to discuss his work on the effects of floating offshore wind Farms on coastal upwelling in the California current cystem. This presentation will take place on Thursday, Jan. 26, at 3:30 p.m.

About the talk:

"In California offshore waters, sustained northwesterly winds have been identified as a key energy resource that could contribute substantially to California’s renewable energy goals. However, the development of large-scale offshore wind farms has the potential to reduce the wind stress at the sea surface, which could have implications on wind-driven upwelling, nutrient delivery, and ecosystem dynamics. Using atmospheric and ocean circulation models together with a hypothetical upper boundary buildout scenario of 877 turbines spread across three wind energy areas of interest, wind speed reductions in the lee of the wind energy areas of interest are found to enhance horizontal wind stress shear, leading to reduced upwelling on the inshore side of windfarms and increased upwelling on the offshore side. These changes, when expressed in terms of widely used metrics for upwelling volume transport and nutrient delivery, show that while the net upwelling in a wide coastal band changes relatively little, the spatial structure of upwelling within this coastal region can be shifted outside the bounds of natural variability."

These talks are delivered in a hybrid fashion. The event is free, and all are welcome to attend in person in the Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building auditorium at the HMSC (2030 S.E. Marine Science Dr). You can also attend online. Register here to attend remotely via Zoom.