The speaker discussed the assessment of climate change impacts on critical energy infrastructure, specifically offshore wind farms. They proposed a framework to generate high-resolution climate simulations to account for climate-related impacts on project financing. The presentation highlighted the need to consider climate change as a factor in the successful implementation of wind energy projects and the importance of high-resolution climate data to achieve this. The speaker also mentioned ongoing research and future plans for validation and further development of their approach.
1. The presentation discusses an application focused on assessing climate change impacts on energy infrastructure.
2. The energy sector is considered critical infrastructure, and outages can lead to severe economic and social consequences.
3. The planning and operational horizons for energy projects span several years to decades.
4. Large-scale wind power projects, particularly offshore wind farms, are capital-intensive and face financing challenges.
5. Climate change impacts, especially on wind conditions, are proposed to be considered in project financing.
6. The need for high-resolution climate simulations, specifically for wind conditions at different heights, is emphasized.
7. The presentation introduces a non-hydrostatic model for simulating wind conditions in the German Bight region.
8. A sensitivity test case demonstrates differences between hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic simulations in capturing wind speed variations.
9. The speaker outlines future steps, including validation with observational data and quantifying long-term climate change impacts.
10. The goal is to relate findings to existing models and develop an ensemble framework for more robust analysis.