Effect of Floating Offshore Wind Turbines on Atmospheric Circulation in California

In California offshore waters, sustained northwesterly winds have been identified as a key energy resource that could contribute substantially to California’s renewable energy mandate. It is these winds that drive upwelling, which is responsible for much of the primary productivity that sustains one of the richest ecosystems on the planet. The goal of this study is to quantify changes in wind fields at the sea surface as the result of offshore wind turbine deployments by use of an atmospheric model. Modeled wind fields from this study will drive an ocean circulation model. The Weather Research and Forecasting model was implemented on a regional scale along the U.S. west coast, with a higher resolution nest along the California continental shelf. Simulated arrays of offshore wind turbines were placed within call areas for wind farm development offshore of Central and Northern California. At full build-out, it was found that wind speeds at 10 m height are reduced by approximately 5%, with wakes extending approximately 200 km downwind of the nominated lease block areas. The length scale of wind speed reductions was found to be several times the internal Rossby radius of deformation, the spatial scale at which rotationally-influenced ocean circulation processes such as upwelling occur.