Integrated Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing for Real-Time Monitoring of OWT Gearbox and Tower Operation and Marine Animal Activities
Leveraging fiber optical sensing for real-time monitoring of offshore wind deployments.
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Recipient
Berkeley, CA
Recipient Location
9th
Senate District
14th
Assembly District
$2,000,000
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
The project team completed all work and submitted the final report in 2024.
This effort developed and validated a new monitoring approach for floating offshore wind using distributed fiber-optic sensing. The work included an initial assessment of technology needs, creation and use of an advanced lab-testing setup, full-scale tower strain monitoring under offshore-like loading (including controlled “damage” scenarios), and collaboration with industry partners to monitor gearbox performance through distributed strain and temperature measurements. The team also carried out field deployments in Monterey Bay to test the use of distributed acoustic sensing for marine mammal detection, and built numerical tools to help interpret the data in real time and filer out noise. Key achievements include demonstrating that distributed fiber optic sensing can reliably measure strain and detect structural changes in wind turbine towers, showing that gearbox strain data can indicate torque levels and early signs of faults, and confirming that distributed acoustic sensing can detect whale vocalizations while identifying the noise sources that must be managed for practical use. The project also advanced knowledge through publications, outreach, and collaboration with partners, helping position the technology for future scale-up and broader adoption.
The Issue
Monitoring systems for offshore wind turbines can play an important role in anticipating and rectifying operational and maintenance issues such as gearbox failures. They can also aid in conducting environmental monitoring and be used as mitigation measures. Advanced technologies capable of real-time operation and marine animal activity monitoring for offshore wind developments are lacking.
Project Innovation
This project advanced a fiber optic sensing system that can, with further development, be used for real-time monitoring of offshore wind turbines. This approach was designed to advance real time monitoring technologies that can be deployed in offshore wind turbine operational conditions and diagnostic signal of potential malfunctions to allow effective operation management that can significantly reduce operations and maintenance costs. It also advanced technologies that can be used as real time monitoring of dynamic marine mammal activities near offshore wind turbines.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
The potential contribution from offshore wind energy to the renewable energy portfolio of California is key to achieve the 100% clean energy goals established in Senate Bill 100. Among the key challenges to floating offshore wind energy development is the high operation and maintenance cost. This project will lead to technological advancement and breakthroughs to overcome barriers to the achievement of the State of California's statutory energy goals by enabling real time OWT gearbox and tower operation and marine animal activities monitoring, which can lead to reduced O&M cost, reduced LCOE, greater OWT reliability and safety, and enhanced environmental sustainability.
Affordability
This novel sensing technology can lead to a reduced LCOE by improving operational and environmental monitoring strategies in an offshore wind farm, ultimately reducing operations and maintenance costs.
Reliability
Use of a fiber optic sensing system in offshore wind applications will increase electricity reliability and increased safety by providing real time monitoring to track operation status, and diagnose gearbox pre-failure.
Safety
By enabling continuous, real-time detection of emerging structural and drivetrain anomalies, the project helps operators intervene earlier and reduce the likelihood of sudden failures that can endanger personnel and assets. It also improves situational awareness during offshore operations by providing persistent monitoring in harsh conditions where manual inspection is limited and riskier.
Energy Security
The project improves security by adding continuous, distributed awareness of turbine and surrounding environmental conditions, which can help detect abnormal patterns that warrant investigation such as unexpected structural responses or operational disturbances. It also supports a more resilient monitoring posture by reducing reliance on single-point sensors and intermittent site visits, making it harder for issues to go unnoticed between inspections.
Key Project Members
Yuxin Wu
Subrecipients
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The Regents of the University of California, on behalf of the Berkeley Campus
Match Partners
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
