A new virtual tool is teaching East Coast marine vessel captains how to navigate a commercial vessel through a simulated offshore wind farm.
Ørstedand Maryland-based Maritime Institute of Technology and Graduate Studies (MITAGS) want boat pilots to be ready before the Skipjack Wind Farm is built off the coast of Delaware and Maryland.
Ørsted's head of government relations and policy for Delaware and Maryland, Brady Walker says MITAGS created a movie theater-sized, 3D simulator at it’s Linthicum Heights, Maryland facility.
“The simulator is available for any number of maritime stakeholders to use," he said. "It’s a great tool for us to bring in groups that have questions or perhaps even concerns about what it’s going to be like to navigate through a wind farm.”
Walker says Ørsted is using the simulator for its entire project portfolio, including the proposed wind farm near southern Delaware.
He notes that Ørsted is continuing to evaluate the potential export of offshore cable routes, cable landfall and interconnection to the grid configurations in southern Delaware.
Ørsted is the company responsible for developing the 966 megawatt offshore project to be located about 20-miles off the coast of Delaware and Maryland.
