Evaluation of wave energy potential applying a numerical modelling downscaling methodology in Central-East Tyrrhenian Sea (original) (raw)
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Renewable Energy, 2015
An unstructured version of SWAN (Simulating WAves Nearshore) is implemented in the Sea of Iroise (western Europe) to assess the wave energy resource at high spatial resolutions in coastal areas. Numerical results are compared with available measurements of the significant wave height and the peak period at nine locations including (1) long-term offshore observations and (2) medium to short-term data acquired during field campaigns. A medium-term evaluation of the wave energy resource for a eight-years period (2004-2011) is performed exhibiting major nearshore energetic patterns off the isles of Ushant and Sein and in the coastal areas of the bay of Audierne, the Crozon Peninsula and the northern coastline. The variability of wave power production is estimated revealing in accordance with numerical modelling conducted over the European shelf seas significant inter-seasonal and inter-annual evolutions of the resource in the Sea of Iroise. These changes appear particularly noticeable during the winter period with opposite situations in the distribution of monthly average wave energy flux. In the perspective of the implementation of wave energy converters devices, the present assessment is finally exploited to investigate the local distributions of wave energy flux against periods and directions in areas of maximum mean wave power.
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Renewable Energy, 2009
Earlier studies have indicated that the gross nearshore wave energy resource is significantly smaller than the gross offshore wave energy resource implying that the deployment of wave energy converters in the nearshore is unlikely to be economic. However, it is argued that the gross wave energy resource is not an appropriate measure for determining the productivity of a wave farm and an alternative measure, the exploitable wave energy resource, is proposed. Calculation of a site's potential using the exploitable wave energy resource is considered superior because it accounts for the directional distribution of the incident waves and the wave energy plant rating that limits the power capture in highly energetic sea-states. A third-generation spectral wave model is used to model the wave transformation from deep water to a nearshore site in a water depth of 10 m. It is shown that energy losses result in a reduction of less than 10% of the net incident wave power. Annual wave data for the North Atlantic coast of Scotland is analysed and indicates that whilst the gross wave energy resource has reduced significantly by the 10 m depth contour, the exploitable wave energy resource is reduced by 7 and 22% for the two sites analysed. This limited reduction in exploitable wave energy resource means that for many exposed coasts, nearshore sites offer similar potential for exploitation of the wave energy resource as offshore sites.
Wave Energy Assessments in the Coastal Environment of Portugal Continental
Volume 6: Nick Newman Symposium on Marine Hydrodynamics; Yoshida and Maeda Special Symposium on Ocean Space Utilization; Special Symposium on Offshore Renewable Energy, 2008
The potential for wave energy extraction can be obtained from the analysis of the wave climate which can be determined with numerical models. The wave energy devices can be deployed in offshore, nearshore and shoreline. From this reason, it is important to be able to assess properly the spatial distribution of the wave energy in various locations from the offshore to the coastline in a specific area. The methodology proposed here considers a SWAN based wave model system focusing in the Portuguese continental coastal environment from deep water towards the nearshore. An analysis of the average and high energetic conditions was first performed for a ten-year period, between 1994 and 2003, considering the most relevant in situ measurements available in the Portuguese nearshore. In this way both the average and high energetic conditions corresponding to the Portuguese continental costal environment have been properly defined. For the most relevant average wave conditions, SWAN simulatio...
Renewable Energy, 2009
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2011
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High-Resolution Wave Energy Assessment in Shallow Water Accounting for Tides
Energies, 2016
The wave energy in a shallow water location is evaluated considering the influence of the local tide and wind on the wave propagation. The target is the coastal area just north of the Portuguese city of Peniche, where a wave energy converter operates on the sea bottom. A wave modelling system based on SWAN has been implemented and focused on this coastal environment in a multilevel computational scheme. The first three SWAN computational belonging to this wave prediction system were defined using the spherical coordinates. In the highest resolution computational domain, Cartesian coordinates have been considered, with a resolution of 25 m in both directions. An in-depth analysis of the main characteristics of the environmental matrix has been performed. This is based on the results of eight-year model system simulations (2005-2012). New simulations have been carried out in the last two computational domains with the most relevant wave and wind patterns, considering also the tide effect. The results show that the tide level, together with the wind intensity and direction, may influence to a significant degree the wave characteristics. This especially concerns the wave power in the location where the wave converter operates.
Numerical Modeling of the Wave Energy Propagation in the Iberian Nearshore
Energies
In the present work the wave energy propagation patterns in the western side of the Iberian nearshore were evaluated. This assessment takes into account the results provided by a wave modelling system based on spectral phase averaged wave models, which considers subsequent computational domains with increasing resolution towards the coast. The system was previously validated against both in situ measurements and remotely sensed data. Moreover, several data assimilation techniques were implemented as well. In this way, the reliability of the wave predictions was significantly increased. Although extended wave hindcasts have already been carried out close to the Iberian coast of the Atlantic Ocean, including wave energy assessments, they might not be completely accurate because of recent changes in the dynamics of the ocean and coastal wave climate. Thus, the present work considers wave nowcasts that correspond to the most recent and relevant wave energy propagation patterns in the targeted coastal environment. In order to perform this analysis, four different computational levels were considered. The first level corresponds to the sub oceanic domain and it is linked directly to the oceanic wave model, which is implemented over the entire North Atlantic Ocean. The second is related to the coarser computational domains of the coastal areas, while the third relates to the high-resolution domains. These three levels are defined as spherical coordinates (longitude, latitude). Finally, the last computational level includes some coastal areas which have the highest spatial resolution, defined considering the Cartesian coordinates. Moreover, for each level several computational domains have been considered. This work illustrates the most recent and significant wave transformation and energy propagation patterns corresponding to 18 computational domains with various resolutions in the western Iberian coastal environment.