Metocean, the combination of meteorology and oceanography refers to the study of wind, waves, water levels, currents and the processes that drive these parameters. From measurement to modelling and analysis, metocean experts aim to provide the most accurate assessment of the ocean and its potential impact on a project.

Understanding metocean 

In the development of an offshore wind farm, the early focus is typically on the wind resource assessment. This makes sense since that drives revenue of the project. But from design to installation and operations, metocean has a major impact on the CAPEX of a projects. Foundation (or floater) design, wind turbine selection and workability assessment are all topics where small differences in environmental conditions can have significant consequences for the costs associated. 

In order to get a grasp on the metocean conditions, two main streams of data are available: measured and modelled data. Measured data is often used to calibrate modelled data. But modelled data can also be informative when planning measurement campaigns, especially for challenging locations.  

Modelling metocean  

Let's look at an example to see how this works in practice. The visualization of a modelling study, as shown below, shows the impact that sand banks can have on the storm-related significant wave height for some of the offshore wind farms planned in the North Sea area. This requires high resolution modelling, and it takes expert judgement to tailor the method to the specific needs of the project.  

Zooming in on the wind farms, and expanding the vertical axes, the impact of this early 2020-storm becomes even more apparent. Not only do we see that this storm generates strong waves, but also that the area directly above the sand banks present very clear stationary peak patterns for the significant wave heights. The effect of sand banks on individual wave heights is another very interesting topic and would require its own deep dive! Both have a major impact on the design envelope of the foundations, but information regarding these topics is usually not part of the main wind & site studies provided by the Dutch government for these locations. 

From data to practice 

During the site selection and preliminary wind farm design, metocean study provides key information about the environmental conditions that will help to make location specific decisions and supports the design process. Those early studies will then feed into measurement campaigns and metocean assessments, during which data is refined, and design houses are provided with accurate estimation of the ocean's parameters based on state-of-the-art methods. This concerns both ambient conditions and probabilities of extreme events, which are usually determining for design.  

Once the construction starts, the role of metocean is to help the contractors work as efficiently and safely as possible by providing accurate statistics and workability windows. Again, this involves combined measurement, modelling and expert knowledge.  

Ready to take your offshore wind projects to new heights? 

With our expert team at Pondera, we combine wind resource and metocean to provide consistency throughout the measurement campaigns and desktop studies and to lower design uncertainty.  

By optimizing measurement campaigns and managing metocean assessment Pondera can guide you through the early phases of your project and help you minimize risks and costs for later. And during installation and maintenance phases, we can also help you optimize operations based on the same expertise.