2022 SOST Opportunities and Actions Roundtable Submissions
Summary: The development of offshore wind farms offers a novel opportunity through its massive investment in wide-area infrastructure and operation in offshore environments. New wind farms will deliver renewable power to the grid but can also be designed to expand ocean observatory systems and leverage resources for other offshore uses. No ocean monitoring systems of engineered systems in any ocean have covered the spatial extent of the proposed U.S. offshore wind farms.
Planning should start now so that projects are positioned to optimize locations and leasing rights, sub-sea infrastructure and cabled networks, site access, observational data sharing, and workforce training for wind industry, ocean science, and carbon storage purposes. Such shared connectivity has the potential to extend the ocean observation footprint for the public, research, and industrial communities alike, saving time, avoiding costly conflicts, and improving environmental education about our oceans. With multiple-use purposes in mind, this infrastructure can provide a physical backbone for the largest constructed ocean observing system ever envisioned and be located near subsea carbon capture and storage sites. Designed together, these technologies could reduce the energy costs of carbon capture, provide monitoring capabilities for government, industry, and educational purposes, and minimize the need for onshore pipelines, reducing impacts on the ocean and providing educational resources for the surrounding communities.
Sector: Academia
Organization: Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University
POC: David Goldberg, goldberg@ldeo.columbia.edu
Other Contacts: Vicki Ferrini, ferrini@ldeo.columbia.edu