PNNL

Abstract

Two buoys equipped with Doppler lidars owned by U.S. Department of Energy were deployed off the coast of California in fall of 2020 by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The buoys collected data for an entire annual cycle at two offshore locations proposed for offshore wind development by Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. One of the buoys was deployed approximately 50 km off the coast near Morro Bay in central California in 1100 m of water. The second buoy was deployed approximately 40 km off Humboldt County in northern California in 625 m of water. The buoys provided the first-ever continuous measurements of the air-sea transition zone off the coast of California. The atmospheric and oceanographic characteristics of the area and estimates of annual energy production at both Morro Bay and Humboldt lease areas show that both locations have a high wind energy yield and are prime locations for future floating offshore wind turbines. In this article, a comprehensive analysis of the data collected by the buoys is conducted and a final post-processed dataset is uploaded to a data archive maintained by U.S. Department of Energy. Additional analysis was also conducted to show the value of the data collected by the DOE buoys.