Offshore Wind Integrated Geoscience Approach Considering Regulatory Requirements and Project Design Essentials to Optimize Timelines Bringing Value to Project, Developer, and Consumer

Abstract

Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind is developing one of the largest offshore wind energy projects along the U.S. East Coast. Given the large lease area covering 741 km2 and with minimal pre-existing geophysical, geotechnical, environmental, and marine archaeological data availability when the lease was awarded, significant front-end efforts were required to complete project design and regulatory site characterization. Collection of the information needed to progress the Construction Operations Plan and develop a project's detailed design parameters would typically take up to 4 years to finalize. This long duration is exacerbated by the misaligned timing of geophysical information needed early for permitting purposes compared to detailed geotechnical information acquired later, when project design essentials are better defined. This timing issue was managed through innovative phasing and integration of geoscience efforts in the first few years of the development. Coordinated acquisition of geohazards, geophysics, marine archaeology, geotechnics, and benthic habitat data, designed to cover the range of project variables within the project design envelope, optimized the survey campaign and resulted in a future-proof site characterization baseline. This case study highlights various technological, operational and strategic innovations implemented in the following areas: fisheries management and simultaneous vessel operations (SIMOPS), survey line planning, environmental and benthic planning, geotechnical tools and techniques, phased ground model development, data quality assurance and control, offshore operations oversight, data management and regulatory strategies. Refinement to survey plans, including orientation, sequencing, clustering, and multi-purposing data acquisition, delivered multiple efficiencies as the project matured. The team achieved geoscience data quality objectives and reduced survey durations by carefully considering commercial fishing intensity, metocean conditions, geological features, and survey line design or layout. Close coordination with multiple technical package teams was necessary to understand and anticipate evolving engineering data needs and minimize duplicate data gathering. This integrated approach enabled the project to accelerate the identification and interpretation efforts needed to answer critical questions for geotechnical ground modeling, archaeological paleolandscape modeling, geologic history determination, and benthic habitat mapping in ways that are unique and innovative to the offshore wind industry. The unprecedented use of new data displays and innovative mapping tools allowed various project development and engineering design experts from across the global project team to easily access the wealth of geoscientific information developed without the need for specialty software or extensive training. The approach also realized valuable benefits in the areas of offshore safety, achieving critical milestones, and supporting Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind goals of environmental stewardship, being a good neighbor and leading with science.