Developed following consultation with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Trinity House Lighthouse Service, the simulation of Dogger Bank Zone enables users to view what the wind farms would look like at sea height from the bridge of a vessel or at flight height from a helicopter cockpit.
The simulation offers different scenarios in terms of wind turbine size and layout, type of foundation used and infrastructure including accommodation platforms, collector and converter stations, and meteorological masts.
Simulator users can control whether it is night or day and what sea and weather conditions they may encounter, such as fog, haze and rough waves.
Forewind’s Offshore Environmental Impact Assessment Manager, Martin Goff said to make the model realistic, users are able to drop in selected objects where they want such as tankers, cargo ships, construction or fishing vessels, search and rescue boats, life rafts or marker buoys.
“It has been designed to show how multiple wind farms within the Dogger Bank Zone could appear to an observer, to give perspective on the spaces between the different wind farms and how the boundaries could look on this scale,” he said.
“As well as enabling a better understanding of commercial shipping and and rescue operations in the in the wind farms, this is a user-friendly and valuable tool to reassure other sea users, in particular fishermen, about their ability to navigate Dogger Bank once the wind farms have been constructed.”
The interactive simulation was produced by UK company, 3D Web Tech, specialists in innovative 3D computer generated graphics solutions.
Press Release, May 08, 2014; Image: forewind