Floating Wind in a Changing Climate: Linking Metocean Conditions, Control, Reliability, and Grid using Scientific ML

Challenges presented by the widespread and rapid deployment of floating offshore wind farms are complex and interdisciplinary. An integrated approach is required to reach cost and schedule goals that cannot be effectively met with siloed research focused on a subset of scientific gaps. The Floating Wind in a Changing Climate (FWICC) Center, one of the Department of Energy’s Earthshots, will develop a digital energy system using scientific machine learning (SciML) that links key components of floating offshore wind driving the cost of energy in a changing climate. These components of our Center’s SciML Digital Energy System include wind plant design and control, and integration of wind energy onto the power grid. In today’s computational environment, it is impossible to practically use the existing suite of models to examine the cost of energy associated with the large-scale deployment of floating offshore wind turbines. The Center’s research falls into four themes: Metocean, Turbine and Farm, Grid, and SciML Digital Energy System. This presentation will provide an overview and preliminary results of the Earthshot and highlight the advantage of a cross-discipline approach across the research themes to reduce the cost of energy.