Improving offshore wind forecasts off the coast of New England in the United States – The Third Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP3)

Offshore wind energy development in the United States is accelerating, with projects currently representing 40 gigawatts of proposed installed capacity. However, there are still substantial, unsolved challenges with forecasting winds and turbulence over the ocean. To help overcome the challenges, the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are currently conducting a multi-seasonal offshore field campaign off the coast of New England in the Eastern United States. In collaboration with public and private partners, WFIP3 aims to boost offshore wind generation through better forecasting for existing, constructed, and planned wind farms in the area. WFIP3 builds on the success of the first and second wind forecast improvement projects (WFIP1 and WFIP2) which collected data to improve the accuracy of short-term wind forecasts over land. WFIP3 seeks to improve the understanding of the physical phenomena in the marine atmospheric boundary layer that impact wind and turbulence within turbine rotor planes that are critical for wind energy.  

Since November 2023, a comprehensive set of remote sensing and in situ meteorological instruments have been installed at several sites at the coast and on islands. These continuous land-based observations are complemented by observations on a barge and ship during several multi-week-long periods. The observations will be used to evaluate and improve NOAA’s currently operational High-Resolution-Rapid-Refresh model as well as its successor the Rapid Refresh Forecast System. We present an overview of the campaign, research questions, and measurement strategy and will show some preliminary results from the ongoing campaign.