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Abstract

The exploitation of offshore wind farms is an inexorable trend in the development of wind power generation in Taiwan. The operation and maintenance (O&M) period at offshore wind farms depends on the wave conditions that allow vessels to safely access wind turbines. This study used well-calibrated simulation wave data for a 9-years period for the sea areas of Hsinchu and Changhua to analyze the weather windows and quantify the accessibility of offshore windfarms for O&M. Two factors, namely wave height limit and window length, were considered. The results revealed a higher wave distribution and lower percentage of access hours at a wave height below 1 m for each month at Changhua. In addition, higher levels of access were observed at Hsinchu than at Changhua. The annual number of windows decreased as the window length increased. November was more accessible than the adjacent months in winter for smaller wave height limits. The inaccessibility analysis revealed that, for a wave height limit of 1 m and a window length of at least 6 h, the longest waiting time for access is 17.6 days at Hsinchu and 31.9 days at Changhua; if the wave height limit is up to 2.5 m, the longest waiting times are only 2.2 and 6.3 days, respectively. At Hsinchu, the highest possible number of waiting periods is less than 2 days, irrespective of wave height limits and window length. At Changhua, most waiting periods are also less than 2 days.

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