Offshore wind energy deployment in the North Sea by 2030: long-term measurement campaign. Part II: Europlatform analysis for 2016-2019

The North Sea plays a key role in the transformation to meet the European offshore wind plans of 75 GW by 2030. In the Netherlands, the national government aims to develop an offshore wind portfolio of 11.5 GW by 2030 from the current 0.9 GW, corresponding to the 40% of the current electricity consumption. The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy has agreed that TNO performs measurement campaigns in the North Sea from 2014 until 2030 at different locations: Lichteiland Goeree (LEG), Europlatform (EPL) and K13a, under the project Wind@Sea. TNO is responsible for the entire life cycle during the measurements: from the installation plan at the platform; to the purchase and selection of the instrumentation, analysing, reporting and dissemination of the data. This report refers to the analysis of the measurement campaign at the EPL platform from 2016 to 2019. The weather analysis indicates that the data captures the variability of the local and regional climate of the area, including past extreme weather events. Accurate and long term meteorological measurements are crucial for the feasibility and wind site of the plant valuation and for the financial decision to ensure the profitability of the business plans. In addition, the accuracy and high quality data obtained, render this dataset valuable for additional applications in the energy sector.