Context

The Gulf of Lion is frequently exposed to intense winds, making it an area of high wind potential. The development of floating systems is favoured because the water depth increases rapidly. It therefore requires a precise knowledge of the climatology of the metocean conditions that are used to:

• the estimation of the energy resource and power production potential at a given site;
• the estimation of loadings on ORE systems at sea and associated support structures. This includes both extreme loadings for the survivability of the systems, and mean loadings for fatigue design;
• the planning and implementation in optimal conditions of the deployment, operation and maintenance phases of the wind turbines.

Objective

To support the development of offshore wind energy in the French Mediterranean coastal areas by providing a database of high-resolution observations of wind, wave and current fields as well as a new numerical tool for the modelling of metocean conditions in the Gulf of Lion.

Scientific and technical contents

• Collection of available observational data to describe the difficult state of oceanweather conditions in the Gulf of Lion
• Development of a new level 2 SAR processing chain
• Development of a coupled digital system and incorporation of new physical parameterisations
• Validation of the coupled model on the particular conditions of the Gulf of Lion
• Construction of a one-year retrospective database

Resources

CASSIOWPE project sheet (PDF)

Partners and funding

This project is led by the Laboratoire d’Océanographie Physique et Spatiale and France Energies Marines.

The total project budget is €1,290K.

This project receives funding from France Energies Marines and its members and partners, as well as French State funding managed by the French National Research Agency under the France 2030 investment plan. It also benefits from a public financial contribution from the SUD Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region and from the Pôle Mer Méditerranée.

Photo credit : Rkit / Pixabay