Identifying floating offshore wind farm designs which minimize Levelized Cost of Energy considering intra-array wake effect in Atlantic Europe

Abstract

As global energy demands rise, floating offshore wind farms are expanding in turbine rated power and number, amplifying electricity production losses due to inter-turbine wake effects and leading to higher Levelized Cost of Energy. Therefore, accurately estimating this metric across various farm configurations is essential to pinpoint affordable solutions and locations. Such analysis is conducted in Atlantic Europe using high-resolution wind data from a Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 multi-model ensemble, dynamically downscaled to 10-km horizontal resolution using the Weather Research and Forecasting model, and assessed under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway 2–4.5 for the near future (2030–2059). Electricity production losses from wake effect were estimated using the Frandsen model with wind direction discretized in 8 bins, yielding results similar to more sophisticated but computationally expensive methods. The lowest Levelized Cost of Energy are identified around the United Kingdom and Ireland (∼100 €/MWh), northwestern Spain and French Brittany (110–120 €/MWh). These regions support installed capacity between 400 and 600 MW per square 100 km² areas, with potential for a 50 % capacity increase if accepting a maximum 3 % rise in cost. Optimal solutions involve 15 MW wind turbines and semi-submersible concrete platforms, utilizing wind farm layouts covering the entire allocated area.