Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2025

Presentation information

[E] Poster

M (Multidisciplinary and Interdisciplinary) » M-AG Applied Geosciences

[M-AG32] Renewable Energy

Wed. May 28, 2025 5:15 PM - 7:15 PM Poster Hall (Exhibition Hall 7&8, Makuhari Messe)

convener:Hideaki Ohtake(National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology), Chen-Jeih Pan(Department of Space Science and Engineering, National Central University)

5:15 PM - 7:15 PM

[MAG32-P06] Applicability of the ERA5 wave reanalysis data for the offshore wind energy sector

*Marie Kudo1, Teruhisa Shimada2 (1.Graduate School of Sustainable Community Studies, Hirosaki University, 2.Graduate School of Science and Technology, Hirosaki University)

Wave information is essential for offshore wind energy development. With the progress of development and operation of offshore wind energy, a further understanding of coastal waves is required. However, locations of in-situ wave observation data are limited, and sufficient data cannot be obtained in coastal areas. The use of reanalysis data is expected, whereas the data period and the data availability are different dataset by dataset. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) provides with the fifth generation reanalysis ERA5. The ERA5 wave reanalysis data provide homogeneous data since 1979 with high temporal resolution for many variables. On the other hand, the data have the disadvantage of a coarse grid space.

In this study, we compare the ERA5 wave reanalysis data and in-situ observation data to examine the applicability of the ERA5 data for offshore wind energy sector. We used the in-situ data from Nationwide Ocean Wave information network for Ports and HAbourS (NOWPHAS) along the Japan Sea coast of northern Japan and compared the hourly data with those from the ERA5 data. The temporal variability and amplitude of significant wave height are generally consistent between the two datasets, with correlation coefficients greater than 0.9 at the most locations. The correlation shows season variations, with relatively high values in winter and low values in summer. The signs of the mean bias depend on the observation locations. These results suggest that the ERA5 wave data can be utilized for the offshore wind energy sector by adding corrections appropriate to the intended use. At the conference, we show comparisons of other variables and occurrence frequencies of upper limits conditions required for offshore operations.