Assessing offshore wind potential in the Princess Elisabeth Zone
The Belgian government has set a target of generating up to 3.5 GW of extra wind energy in the North Sea. The wind turbines will be located in the Princess Elisabeth Zone (PEZ), 45 km from the Belgian coast. They will form an important link in the transition to green, CO2-free energy. Together with Witteveen+Bos, we carried out the Wind Resource Assessment for the PEZ.
The report gives wind farm developers the data they need to carry out reliable wind farm modelling, energy yield calculations and business case evaluations. The study was commissioned by FPS Economy and certified by DNV. It was carried out using two floating LiDAR buoys supplied by Fugro, which collected data non-stop from November 2022 to November 2023. To further reduce project uncertainties, this data was combined with data from the existing LiDAR campaign being carried out by the Von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI) at the Westhinder (WH) measuring pile.
Quality and resilience
When completing the Wind Resource Assessment for the Princess Elisabeth Zone, a great deal of attention was devoted to the quality and resilience of the conclusions. We implemented strict data quality checks to produce a representative picture of the long-term wind climate for the entire PEZ. Spatial extrapolations were also employed, and the Measure-Correlate-Predict method (MCP) was used to extrapolate from the short term to the long term. An uncertainty analysis and a comparison with other data sources were also used to test – and in this case confirm – the reliability of the results. The WakeBlaster CFD model was also used to assess the wake effects in the PEZ and surrounding wind farms.
Informed decisions
With these quality control measures in place, the results of the Wind Resource Assessment serve as a solid basis to make informed decisions about the development of offshore wind farms in the PEZ, both now and in the future. In the lead-up to the realisation of wind farms in the Princess Elizabeth Zone, the tendering process for the construction and operation licences for Site 1 will begin this year. Other sites will follow in the coming years.
