Risks must be minimised
It is this work that The Energy Technology Development and Demonstration Program (EUDP), a public Danish foundation, has decided to support with a grant of DKK 7.98 million for the WINDFARM project. The idea of the project is that the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) and two industry partners will develop methods that can help underpin the decisions that will form the basis of the planning and location of future wind farms. At the same time, the methods ensure that the work will be time- and cost-effective, and that geological and geotechnical risks are minimised.
“Knowledge of the properties of the seabed is crucial when establishing offshore wind farms, so that we avoid faulty constructions and don’t waste time and money in the green transition. Therefore GEUS, in collaboration with industry partners, will develop and test methods that can facilitate the establishment of marine infrastructure,” explains WINDFARM Project Manager, Sunny Singhroha, who is employed in the Department for Near Surface Land and Marine Geology (SURFACE) at GEUS, where the project is based.
According to him, this can be done by combining GEUS’ knowledge of near-surface geology and the geophysical methods that the independent research institution uses to look at sediments in the marine environment, with the industry partners’ experience with advanced techniques for inversion of data.
Green decisions require a solid foundation
For the WINDFARM project, the parties will cooperate on testing advanced methods. Using seismic inversion algorithms and ultra-high-resolution seismic data (UHRS) in combination with numerical methods, they will map the physical properties of the shallow marine sediments at high resolution over a large geographical area (offshore Denmark). The methods can be used at several stages in the development of the marine infrastructure and are therefore very useful.
“The green transition is urgent, and this means that there are certain requirements for the development of new methods at the crossroads between research and practical application. At GEUS, over the past decade we have continuously developed our skills in numerical modelling to generate high-quality geological models to study groundwater. We are excited about the fact that the skills we have acquired from groundwater projects can now be used in the marine environment through the WINDFARM project. In cooperation with the industry, that work contributes to the important green agenda,” says Torben Bach, who is State Geologist and Head of Department at the Department for Near Surface Land and Marine Geology (SURFACE) at GEUS.