The Sea Breeze Circulation and Offshore Wind Energy in the Northeastern U.S.

The sea breeze circulation, a common atmospheric phenomenon along coastal waters throughout the world, plays an important role in the enhancement of wind power availability. This is especially true for the near shore waters of the mid-Atlantic and northeastern U.S. Within this region, specifically east of New Jersey and south of New York’s Long Island, the sea breeze circulation undergoes a distinct enhancement. Hub height wind speeds often exceed 15 m s^-1(see e.g. Figure 1), enabling power production to reach 100% capacity factors for a sustained period (4 - 6 hours). Thousands of megawatts (MW) are now planned for this offshore area. However, current resource assessment and modeling tools do not depict or forecast this phenomena with any degree of certainty. Here, using LiDAR observations from the New York State Mesonet, previous field projects, and state-of-the-art modeling simulations, we demonstrate how the sea breeze enhances capacity factors and can drive down the levelized cost of energy for offshore wind projects in this region.

Specific objectives to be presented include: (i) understanding the dynamics and climatology of the local sea breeze circulation; (ii) how the sea breeze circulation complements the simultaneous heavy load demand from New Jersey, New York City, and Long Island; and (iii) an observation and modeling depiction of the 3-dimensional wind field of the sea breeze circulation off the coastal waters of New York and New Jersey, including onset time, magnitude of the wind speed maxima, and the vertical and horizontal extent of the enhanced sea breeze circulation.