Hurricane risk assessment of offshore wind turbines under changing climate

Offshore wind energy is attracting increasing attention across the North America. However, the offshore wind turbines along the East Coast are extremely vulnerable to hurricane-induced hazards. The vulnerability to hurricanes is expected to change due to global warming’s effects. This study quantifies the risk of floating wind turbines (FWTs) subjected to hurricane hazards under current and future climate scenarios. The hurricane hazard estimation is achieved using a hurricane track model which generates a large synthetic database of hurricanes allowing for accurate risk estimation. The structural response of the FWTs during each hurricane event is obtained using an efficient physics-based 3-D model. The case study results involving a parked FWT indicate that the change in hurricane-induced risk, evaluated in terms of the magnification factor, to the FWTs would significantly increase with the intensity measure.

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