The effects of wind farm wakes on freezing sea spray in the mid-Atlantic offshore wind energy areas

Rosencrans, David; Lundquist, Julie K.; Optis, Mike; Bodini, Nicola

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-59-2025

Articles | Volume 10, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-59-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/wes-10-59-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 10, issue 1

Research article

|

08 Jan 2025

Research article |

| 08 Jan 2025

The effects of wind farm wakes on freezing sea spray in the mid-Atlantic offshore wind energy areas

David Rosencrans, Julie K. Lundquist, Mike Optis, and Nicola Bodini

Data sets

mid-Atlantic_turbines D. Rosencrans https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7374283

mid-Atlantic_namelists D. Rosencrans https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7374239

ERA5 hourly data on pressure levels from 1940 to present H. Hersbach et al. https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.bd0915c6

Renewable Energy GIS Data BOEM https://www.boem.gov/renewable-energy/mapping-and-data/renewable-energy-gis-data

2023 National Offshore Wind data set (NOW-23) National Renewable Energy Laboratory https://doi.org/10.25984/1821404

Short summary

The US offshore wind industry is growing rapidly. Expansion into cold climates will subject turbines and personnel to hazardous icing. We analyze the 21-year icing risk for US east coast wind areas based on numerical weather prediction simulations and further assess impacts from wind farm wakes over one winter season. Sea spray icing at 10 m can occur up to 67 h per month. However, turbine–atmosphere interactions reduce icing hours within wind plant areas.