Evaluation matrix to select appropriate countermeasures for Offshore Windfarm protection

Abstract

The extension targets for the German offshore windfarms are quite ambitious. Until today around 8 GW of capacity is installed. The extension goal for 2030 is 30 GW in the North and Baltic sea. One option to increase the offshore capacity is to repower old wind turbines (WT). Even through that is a value option also more areas need to be dedicated to the offshore windfarms (OWFs). Because the offshore wind industry is not the only stakeholder within the German exclusive economic zone, it is possible that a co-use of the areas dedicated to the OWFs is introduced. In the end of April 2023, a collision between a WT and a vessel toke place. It has to be noted that it seems like that the detection of the unauthorized vessel within the OWF has not been noticed. With this work it should be investigated how existing and future countermeasures can be evaluated. Therefore this work presents an evaluation scheme to assess the suitability of a countermeasure. The focus thereby is to include multiple aspects for example the scope of the countermeasure, timely restrictions or mechanism of action considered. The developed framework has then been applied to exemplary countermeasures within an OWFs and blind spots within the combination of multiple countermeasures have been determined.