Offshore wind profile observation system on a floating buoy

To detect the availability of wind farms, it is important to evaluate their profitability based on actual wind data. In case of an offshore wind farm, especially in deeper waters, we can not find any actual measured data to evaluate it. In Europe, the data are gained with a conventional meteorology tower mounted on the seabed in shallow water. However some offshore wind farms which may be expected in the Japanese coastal area will be located in the deeper waters. So, a floating type is one of the solutions in deeper waters to achieve cost-effectiveness and reliability. The new offshore wind profile observation system can provide wind profile of approx. 20 m to 200 m above sea surface in deeper waters. In this paper, outline of this study result is introduced.