Posters

Abstract

Accelerating access to renewable energy sources is a critical element of mitigating the crisis of climate change. Like their on-land counterparts, offshore wind farms provide clean, renewable energy. Ocean mapping is a key component of selecting a site to establish an offshore wind farm. Wind farm developers require a detailed understanding of the ocean floor and continuous surveying for topographical shifts due to sediment redistribution by ocean currents. Traditional ocean mapping methods utilize crewed vessels that are expensive and have a large carbon footprint; autonomous systems have been limited to short missions in shallow water requiring a support vessel or nearby shore facility. Long-endurance, low-impact (LELI) autonomous systems are a much-needed force multiplier for offshore wind site surveying, lowering environmental impacts by using harvestable energy, eliminating personnel at sea, and reducing ship-generated noise, overboard discharge, and potential for pollution. The Saildrone Surveyor is the first uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) to map the deep ocean remotely, as demonstrated by a round trip mission from California to Hawaii in the summer of 2021, mapping 50,000 square kilometers of seafloor while under sail. Primarily powered by solar and hydro energy and propelled by wind, the Saildrone Surveyor ushers in a new era of LELI USVs for safer, cost-effective, environmentally-friendly ocean mapping, which will accelerate the establishment of new offshore wind farms.