Abstract: The marine environment can be subject to severe conditions that dramatically increase the cost of offshore operations. In order to optimise the costs and duration of operations and, ultimately, to determine the installation schedule and maintenance strategies, this paper presents a timeseries method to evaluate the accessibility, depending on weather and sea conditions and on the type of operation to be performed, with the use of the AMER (“Accessibilité en MER”) software.
A test case for the installation of a generic tidal energy converter has been studied at the Paimpol- Bréhat tidal current turbine demonstration farm site. The accessibility of the Paimpol-Bréhat site has been estimated, provided generic environmental condition limits (such as wind speed, wave height, wave period and current speed limits) and technical characteristics of the operation (duration, night work). The results show a strong seasonal variation in the accessibility, with the best conditions experienced from April to September.
This information is essential in defining the business plan for a future tidal current turbine, wave energy converter or offshore wind farm, and in estimating the electricity generation costs.
