Worldwide research firm, TGS, is deploying a lidar buoy at the southern edge of the Morro Bay offshore wind area. Photo courtesy TGS
A major ocean research company is attempting to install a specialized buoy at the offshore wind farm area but had a bit of a hiccup on its first attempt.
TGS, a self-described global provider of energy data and intelligence for the energy sector, wants to install a single, floating, “lidar buoy” along the south edge of the Morro Bay Call Area, the nearly 400-square mile patch of ocean, some 30 miles off the Coast at San Simeon.
The goal is to gather data — both below and above the surface — it believes will be useful to the three wind companies who hold leases there. TGS is going into the project without an actual client but is confident their data will be useful.
Estero Bay News sent some questions to TGS about the project, and the unfortunate “technical difficulties” on Oct. 2 that “led to an incomplete deployment,” the company said in an email response.
“Most of the mooring has been deployed, including the clump weight, dyneema rope, and an intermediate floater, but the floating lidar buoy is not deployed.”
Dyneema rope is “a strong, lightweight rope made from ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene,” according to an online definition. It is purportedly “the world’s strongest man-made fiber,” 15 times stronger than steel and eight times lighter than steel wire rope. Unfortunately, it also floats in water. It is used for many things from stunt kite string to heavy lift slings, and in some parts of the world, it is used to “repair human joints and stop bullets.”
They gave the exact coordinates of where the lost gear is located, part of an official “Notice to Mariners” they sent out on Oct. 11. “The mooring is located at 35 25.654’N, 121 47.128’W, which is approximately 200 meters from the planned deployment coordinates.”
When such mishaps happen, a notice to mariners is put out so vessels and boats can avoid the area and so trawlers don’t get caught up on the anchor, a dangerous situation that can capsize and sink a boat. But this anchor doesn’t sound very big.
“The clump weight on the seabed is approximately 1 meter by 1.5 meters,” TGS said. That would make it roughly the size of a small garbage dumpster. They aren’t going to let it just sit on the seafloor.
“We plan to retrieve the mooring components and deploy the buoy at the planned coordinates in the coming weeks.”
They’ve hired the HOS Innovator, a 240-foot long, 54-foot beam, and 1,815 gross ton, workboat with a 36-metric ton boom crane, owned and operated by Hornbeck Offshore to set the mooring and deploy the buoy.
The actual buoy, made by Eolos, also isn’t very big. “The buoy is yellow in color and approximately 4 meters by 4 meters across.” Because it doesn’t sit very high in the water, they’ve installed warning lights. “Buoy has a yellow navigational light that flashes for 0.3 seconds every 4 seconds,” TGS said.
The buoy is supposed to be set at: 35° 25’ 39.36” N 121° 46’ 57.72” W, and some 72-nautical miles west of Morro Bay, according to the Notice to Mariners.
The lidar buoy is an interesting mix of technology, having the traditional floats and moorings, but with solar panels and even small wind turbines to power the instruments. It’s going to collect so-called “metocean” data.
“Metocean,” TGS explained, “means meteorology and oceanography. The buoy contains several instruments that measure the weather and ocean conditions at the site.”
It’s high-tech, using lidar lasers, which is also used by the Sheriff’s Department to map crime scenes, and by police to catch speeders, among numerous other uses.
“One of the meteorological instruments on the buoy is a vertical scanning lidar, specifically a ZX 300M device,” TGS explained. “The ZX 300M uses a low power eye-safe infrared laser.”
“This device,” TGS continued, “measures wind speed, wind direction, and turbulence intensity up to 300-meters above the sea surface. The power for the lidar, and all instruments on the buoy, come from solar panels and small wind turbines mounted on the buoy.”
The instruments underneath the buoy will measure currents and water temps, among other data. The plan is for the buoy to be deployed for one year and then removed.
The TGS buoy and all the data it will collect will add to the amazing amount of information the offshore floating wind farm projects will be collecting and will likely make this the most studied patch of open ocean, certainly on the California Coast.
Locally, only the laying of undersea fiber optic cables or perhaps the national marine sanctuary work, can come close to the amount of studying being done for the OSW.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the Federal agency tasked with developing these projects, has done preliminary site surveys in advance of the lease sales. But the studying was just getting started.
The permitting process has included underwater microphones being deployed by NOAA scientists to try and survey the marine life swimming through the call area, looking mainly for seals, sea lions, dolphins and whales.
Another scientist on that same expedition was surveying seabirds in the call area. This was part of BOEM’s work.
After the lease sales, the three winning companies — Central California Offshore Wind, LLC; Equinor Wind US, LLC; and, Invenergy California Offshore, LLC — will also do extensive studies of the ocean floor both in the call area and the roughly 60-mile route the high energy transmission wires will be taking when they are buried in the seafloor to bring the energy to shore.
These studies are underway now and each company is at a different stage in this work.
And this offshore work doesn’t include the onshore planning work that will need to be done to build proper ports, including a deep-water port for the manufacturing and assembly yards, and smaller ports to accommodate the smaller workboats and crews that will be needed in this brand-new industry.
The City of Morro Bay and SLO County are doing one study of the local ports, and Port San Luis is doing one for itself.
Still to come is the issue of where substations will be built to handle the incoming 3-gigawatts of power (potentially 5 GW) and send it out over the state power grid.
There is one substation currently sitting largely unused at the Morro Bay Power Plant and another substation at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant could also become available after that nuclear power station is finally closed for good.
One estimate has said such substations would need to be 10-12 acres in size, and the initial concept has been to install floating substations offshore as well, moored somewhere between the call area and wherever the power is brought ashore. These substation plans have not yet been made public.
And the bureaucracy is a bit crazy in this endeavor, as it will bring in the federal, state and local governments to varying degrees handling different aspects. BOEM handled the lease sales and is overseeing the environmental studies and design elements.
The Coastal Commission has jurisdiction over the permitting of the transmission cables route and the City of Morro Bay and/or County Supervisors will have to come in at some point for onshore development permits when needed.
But the TGS’ buoy project is outside even that bureaucracy. EBN, which has tried to keep up with all the spinning plates in this magic show, asked who permitted TGS’ buoy project?
“The buoy was permitted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE),” they replied, “through the Nationwide Permit 5 (NWP-5) program for scientific measurement devices. The USACE coordinated its review of the planned buoy deployment with stakeholders including the Dept. of Defense [Navy] and the California Coastal Commission.
“Additionally, the buoy has a ‘Private Aid to Navigation’ (PATON) permit from the U.S. Coast Guard and is listed on the USCG’s light list.”
The company has used these lidar buoys five times on the U.S. East Coast and thrice in Europe, TGS said. The fledgling offshore wind industry is potentially a big customer. “Floating lidar buoy deployments are the primary means for acquiring meteorological and oceanographic measurements at potential offshore wind project locations,” TGS explained. “Floating lidar buoys have been widely used, and the data are accepted by the wind and related industries for project development purposes.”
TGS’ study would appear to be science for the sake of science at this point.
“TGS organizes measurement campaigns and collects data at energy projects globally,” they said. “The data are owned by TGS and may be licensed to any interested party. For this specific buoy campaign, we anticipate the data will be of interest to the three wind companies holding leases at the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area, but we also expect interest from other companies, research institutions, and academia.”
