Investigation on Improving Strategies for Navigation Safety in the Offshore Wind Farm in Taiwan Strait

Abstract

The Taiwan Strait, to the west of Taiwan, is rich in wind energy resources and has the greatest offshore wind power potential in the world. Therefore, Taiwan has been actively expanding its offshore wind power industry in this area in recent years and expects to achieve the total installed capacity to 15.6 GW by 2035. Due to the large vessel traffic flow in Western Taiwan’s sea area, wind farms will inevitably reduce the navigable space and shadow some existing marine aids to navigation, thus worsening navigation safety. An approach using a fault tree analysis was used to carry out analysis of collision risk between ship-to-ship and ship-to-turbine. The vessel density distribution and traffic flow within the open sea of offshore wind farms would further increase to curtail the available navigable space. The shadowing effects along navigation channels would thereafter be worsened to raise the probability of collision risks in the sea. The results of the fault tree analysis revealed that if the ship is out of control, the time allowed to provide assistance is rather short, leading to the increase of collision risk extent between ships and wind turbines. Moreover, the study also found that unfit functions of the Vessel Traffic Service System and navigation aids and frequently and arbitrarily crossing the navigation channel of fishery vessels are the main causes of ship collisions. In order to effectively improve the navigation safety, competitive strategies for navigation safety are investigated and evaluated in this study. These strategies include making a complete plan for utilizing the whole sea, integrating the offshore vessel traffic service and management system, providing remote pilotage services, and building salvage vessels. The above promising strategies would enhance the navigation safety within the open sea. Collision risk might occur once marine accident occurs and no salvage vessel is available.