Hindawi Publishing Corporation he Scientiic World Journal Volume 2013, Article ID 126428, 10 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/126428 Research Article Assessment of the Present and Future Offshore Wind Power Potential: A Case Study in a Target Territory of the Baltic Sea Near the Latvian Coast Lita Lizuma, 1 Zanita Avotniece, 2 Sergejs Rupainis, 3 and Artis Teilans 1 1 Institute of Physical Research and Biomechanics, Artilerijas 40, Riga 1090, Latvia 2 Faculty of Geography and Earth Sciences, University of Latvia, Alberta 10, Riga 1010, Latvia 3 Rezekne Higher Education Institution, Atbrivosanas aleja 90, Rezekne 4601, Latvia Correspondence should be addressed to Lita Lizuma; lita.lizuma@inbox.lv Received 30 March 2013; Accepted 13 June 2013 Academic Editors: S. Andronopoulos, B. Kosovic, and A. Sirit Copyright © 2013 Lita Lizuma et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Ofshore wind energy development promises to be a signiicant domestic renewable energy source in Latvia. he reliable prediction of present and future wind resources at ofshore sites is crucial for planning and selecting the location for wind farms. he overall goal of this paper is the assessment of ofshore wind power potential in a target territory of the Baltic Sea near the Latvian coast as well as the identiication of a trend in the future wind energy potential for the study territory. he regional climate model CLM and High Resolution Limited Area Model (Hirlam) simulations were used to obtain the wind climatology data for the study area. he results indicated that ofshore wind energy is promising for expanding the national electricity generation and will continue to be a stable resource for electricity generation in the region over the 21st century. 1. Introduction he exploitation of renewable energy sources can help the European Union meet many of its environmental and energy policy goals, including its obligation to reduce greenhouse gases under the Kyoto Protocol and the aim of securing its energy supply [1]. he current situation regarding wind energy production in Latvia is unsatisfactory. According to the data from Latve- nergo AS, approximately 1535 MW (76%) of the total electric- ity production in Latvia, is generated by hydroelectric power plants, while about 474 MW (23%) is generated at thermal power plants and from fossil fuels, but only around one percent is generated by wind power. Ofshore wind energy development promises to be a signiicant domestic renewable energy source for Latvia. he irst stage of exploiting the wind energy is the evaluation of wind resources at wind farm sites which means a site-speciic evaluation of wind climatology and vertical proiles of wind, as well as the assessment of historical and potential future changes in the wind climate. Suitable long-term wind observation data are needed for this purpose. Reliable prediction of the wind resources as well as site conditions at ofshore sites is crucial for project planning and selecting suitable locations. here is a lack of such data sets in the focus area of this study. In situ measurements of wind and environmental conditions are available only for the coastal areas. here are diferent ways of estimating the wind resources at a site: interviews of people with local knowledge to identify areas with high and/or low wind speed, measurements only, the measure-correlate-predict method, using global data- bases, wind atlas methodology, site data-base modelling, and mesoscale and microscale modelling [2, 3]. Recently ofshore wind energy mapping has beneited from the advantages provided by the remote sensing data [4–6]. he infrastructure of large ofshore installation is typically more expensive than onshore counterparts, relying on some- what even longer depreciation time. For understanding how the global climate change might inluence the magnitude of wind resources as well as the operation and maintenance con- ditions of wind turbines the General Circulation (or Global Climate) Models (GCMs) and regional climate downscaling