- Alternative Energy Development
- Environmental Data Analysis
Florida Power and Light (FPL) have proposed to build an electrical generation wind turbine park for the Long Island Power Authority to be located south of Fire Island, Long Island, New York. ASA was retained by FPL to evaluate the wave climate at the proposed wind park that the turbine piles would be subject to.
Work tasks involved using the NOAA wave measurements collected from offshore buoys; wave hindcasts prepared by the US Army Corps of Engineers Wave Information Studies (WIS) database; and use of a parametric model-predicted wind data set for 2003 used for analysis of potential wind energy that was provided by FPL. The purpose of the first two tasks was to provide context over long time periods to the 2003 information that was predicted for the site.
An hourly time series of 10m height predicted winds (speed and direction) at the site was received from FPL for the 2003 calendar year. The observed significant wave height data at the NOAA offshore buoys during 1991-2000 and the frequency of occurrence in hours of wave heights for each month were determined. The model-predicted wave heights given by WIS at proximate stations were used to determine the frequency of occurrence and the percentage exceedences presented in the form of charts and tables.
Waves were hindcast from the 2003 wind information using the USACE Coastal Engineering Manual. Calculations were made for both fetch limited and duration limited waves.
Based on the analysis of NOAA wave data it was found that 2003 was an energetic year compared to the period 1991 through 2004. For this reason it is likely that the predictions for wave height at the project site based on wind predictions for 2003 may also be somewhat higher than typically expected.
This information allowed FPL to plan maintenance schedules based on the wave environment expected at the park during each month.