Offshore Wind Team
The RUCOOL Offshore Wind team develops and advances the science that informs decision-making around offshore wind, both at a state and national level. We do this through research using both observations and models, and extensive engagement with stakeholders on the issues important to this new industry.
The Growing Offshore Wind Industry
Offshore wind development in New Jersey reached new heights in 2020, with the previously awarded Ocean Wind project continuing to move forward, and a second round of solicitations taking place for the next tranche of offshore wind. These projects will be major contributions to Governor Murphy’s goal of 7,500 MW of offshore wind development in NJ’s coastal waters by 2035, as outlined in NJ’s Offshore Wind Strategic Plan. These efforts in NJ are complimented by similar efforts in states throughout the Mid-Atlantic, adding up to over 27 GW of offshore wind commitments.
As the push for offshore wind continues, it’s important to understand how the construction of large offshore wind farms will interact with the existing ocean environment. This includes a thorough understanding of the offshore wind resource, which is strongly influenced by the underlying ocean. How might wind turbines change the wind-driven ocean mixing, key to the setup and breakdown of the Mid-Atlantic Cold Pool? Perhaps most importantly, it’s vital that the offshore wind industry succeeds while protecting existing ocean uses, including the fishing industry, and endangered species such as the North Atlantic Right Whale.
RUCOOL Contributions
Since 2011, RUCOOL has worked with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) on observing and modeling of NJ’s coastal wind resource. This includes our Coastal Metocean Monitoring Station, located adjacent to the Rutgers University Marine Field Station (RUMFS), one of the best equipped field sites along the entire Mid-Atlantic Coast. RUCOOL also runs a daily, real-time version of the Weather Research and Forecasting model (RUWRF), allowing us to continue to build a continuous database of the modeled offshore wind resource. RUWRF is also a vital research tool in helping to answer questions around how the atmosphere and ocean interact in and around wind energy lease areas. RUCOOL also collaborates with wind energy developers, including Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind and Ørsted Ocean Wind, on projects to better understand and protect our offshore environment. Finally, RUCOOL does extensive outreach to and discussion with all offshore wind stakeholders through our Partners in Science workshops, focus group, and webinar discussions.
Offshore Wind Resources
Miles, T., S. Murphy, J. Kohut, S. Borsetti, and D. Munroe (2021), Offshore wind energy and the mid-atlantic cold pool: A review of potential interactions, Mar. Technol. Soc. J., 55(4), 72–87, DOI:10.4031/MTSJ.55.4.8
Brodie, J., Kohut, J., Zemeckis, D. 2021. Partners in Science Workshop: Identifying Ecological Metrics and Sampling Strategies for Baseline Monitoring During Offshore Wind Development.
Hugh Roarty, Scott Glenn, Joseph Brodie, Laura Nazzaro, Michael Smith, Ethan Handel, Josh Kohut et al. “Annual and seasonal surface circulation over the Mid‐Atlantic Bight Continental Shelf derived from a decade of High Frequency Radar observations.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 125, no. 11 (2020): e2020JC016368.
Optis, M., Kumler, A., Brodie, J., Miles, T. (Feb 2021). Quantifying sensitivity in numerical weather prediction‐modeled offshore wind speeds through an ensemble modeling approach. Wind Energy. DOI: 10.1002/we.2611
Literature Review: Miles, T., Murphy, S., Kohut, J., Borsetti, S., Munroe, D. Dec. 2020. Could federal wind farms influence continental shelf oceanography and alter associated ecological processes? Science Center for Marine Fisheries.
Validation of RU-WRF, the Custom Atmospheric Mesoscale Model of the Rutgers Center for Ocean Observing Leadership. 2020. Golden, CO: National Renewable Energy Laboratory. NREL/TP-5000-75209
Greg Seroka, Erick Fredj, and Rich Dunk. March 2020. Analysis of Sea Breeze Types Using WRF and Lagrangian Methods: Update Using RU-WRF Configuration AquaWind, LLC
Josh Kohut, Joseph Brodie, Final Report on Partners in Science Workshop: Offshore Wind and the Mid-Atlantic Cold Pool, July 2019.
Archer, C. L., Wu, S., Vasel-Be-Hagh, A., Brodie, J.F., Delgado,, R., St. Pe, A., Oncley, S., Semmer, S. 2019. The VERTEX field campaign : observations of near-ground effects of wind turbine wakes. Journal of Turbulence. https://doi.org/10.1080/14685248.2019.1572161.
St. Pé, A., M. Sperling, J. F. Brodie, and R. Delgado. 2018. Classifying rotor-layer wind to reduce offshore available power uncertainty. Wind Energy. DOI: 10.1002/we.2159.
Veron, D. E., Brodie, J.F., Shirazi, Y.A., Gilchrist, J.R. 2018. Modeling the electrical grid impact of wind ramp-up forecasting error offshore in the Mid-Atlantic region. Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, 10(1):013308. DOI: 10.1063/1.4990684.
| OSW LBIF | April 18, 2022 | |
|---|---|
| Josh Kohut, Joseph Brodie | Perspectives on Offshore Wind and the Environment from a Local Oceanographer and Meteorologist |
| IFISSH 2022 | February 14, 2022 | |
| Josh Kohut, Joseph Brodie | Fisheries Oceanography and Atmospheric Science |
| OSW Pinelands Preservation Alliance | February 10, 2022 | |
| Josh Kohut | An Oceanographer’s Perspective on Offshore Wind Energy and Our Ocean Planet |
| OSW JCNEER | February 9, 2022 | |
| Josh Kohut | Underwater robots help inform the deployment of offshore wind |
| MTS | October 5, 2021 | |
| Jaden Dicopoulos | Weather Research and Forecasting model validation with NREL specifications over the New York / New Jersey Bight |
| Stockton University for the New Jersey Environmental Lobby | October 5, 2021 | |
| Travis Miles | An Oceanographers Perspective on Offshore Wind and the Mid Atlantic Bight Cold Pool |
| Time for Turbines | Jan 27, 2021 | |
| Joseph Brodie | Technology for Understanding Offshore Wind and the Environment |
| Graduate Student Thesis Defense | Dec, 2020 | |
| Sarah Murphy | Mid Atlantic Bight: Coastal Upwelling & The Offshore Wind Environment |
| MARACOOS Online Webinar | May 1, 2020 | |
| Josh Kohut, Joseph Brodie | Mid-Atlantic Offshore Wind Energy Update |
| Wind Energy Center, University of Massachusetts Amherst | Feb 20, 2020 | |
| Joseph Brodie | Offshore Wind Interactions with the Atmosphere and Ocean Environment |
| Big Data, AI & Blockchain, Business Network for Offshore Wind, Boston, MA | Sep 12, 2019 | |
| Joseph Brodie | Combining Observations and Modeling to Improve Wind Resource Assessment |
| Time for Turbines, Atlantic City, NJ | August 16, 2019 | |
| Joseph Brodie | Ocean Observing, The Environment, and Offshore Wind |
| 2019 Rutgers Energy Institute’s (REI) 14th Annual Energy Symposium, Rutgers University, NJ | May 8th | |
| Scott Glenn | The Power of Partnerships: Offshore Wind Energy, Environmental Awareness, and Shared Economic Success |
| 2019 International Partnering Forum, New York, New York | April 10, 2019 | |
| Travis Miles, Scott Glenn, Joseph Brodie, Josh Kohut | NJ Offshore Wind Resource Modeling: The Power of Partnerships |
| AMS Annual Meeting Phoenix, AZ | January 8, 2019 | |
| Joseph Brodie, Dana Veron, Travis Miles, Brian Frei, Eric Allen | Utilizing Climatological Analysis to Improve Forecasting of Offshore Wind Ramps |