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An evaluation of the wave energy resources in the proximity of the wind farms operating in the North Sea
Abstract
The objective of the present work is to assess the wave power in the North Sea in the vicinity of the most relevant wind farms that are operating there. At this moment, the coastal environment of the North Sea is among the most significant areas in the world from the point of view of harvesting marine renewable energy. Furthermore, this area is also very relevant for offshore activities related to oil and gas extraction. From this perspective, its coastal environment would be a perfect candidate for the implementation of the wave projects, which would benefit from existing infrastructure. The ERA5 dataset has been considered for the evaluation of the wave power for the 30-year period (1989-2018). 10 reference points have been defined in the coastal environment of the sea covering the most relevant locations and for them, the mean wave power has been first assessed. After this, the seasonal and monthly variability of the wave power have been also evaluated together with some statistical parameters. The results show that the northern part of the sea has relatively significant wave energy resources and it can be a viable candidate for implementation of the future wave projects. However, the linear trends indicate a slight tendency of decrease of the wave power, but on the other hand, the coefficient of resource variation has small values. Finally, a comparison with the satellite data provided by the European Space Agency is also carried out for the 27-year period 1992-2018. While in general there is a very good concordance between the two datasets, for the reference points located in the northeastern part of the sea, which are the most resourceful locations, the satellite data indicate higher values.
... The sea site selection and planning of wave-wind combined energy generation is an important link in the preliminary work of co-located offshore wind and wave farm (COWWF) construction project, which is the key to determine the good economic benefits of electric field construction. Evaluation of the complementarity of the wind and wave energy potential have been carried out in various studies around the world (Astariz and Iglesias, 2017;Azzellino et al., 2013;Kalogeri et al., 2017;Murphy et al., 2011;Rusu and Rusu, 2021a;Rusu et al., 2017;Rusu and Rusu, 2021b;Wan et al., 2018). ...
... The hindcast datasets were widely used directly (Martinez and Iglesias, 2020;Rusu and Rusu, 2021a;Rusu and Rusu, 2021b), or to form the input data for wave simulation models such as Swan, WAVEWATCH-III, and WAM in wave-wind energy resource assessments and co-location evaluation. (Zheng et al., 2013;Kalogeri et al., 2017;Kamranzad and Lin, 2020;Kamranzad and Takara, 2020;Gideon and Bou-Zeid, 2021). ...
... Gideon and Bou-Zeid, (2021) used NOAA and Hywind data as the input data to analyze the variability of wave-wind power farms in different sites. The ERA-5 database was chosen by Martinez and Iglesias, (2020), Rusu and Rusu, (2021a), and Rusu and Rusu, (2021b). Wan et al. (2018) selected the ERA-Interim reanalysis data, and some scholars used the satellite data (Rusu and Rusu, 2021a;Wan et al., 2016). ...
With the commercialization of offshore wind and the continued advancement of wave energy technologies, the option of locating both in the same sea area has emerged. The joint development of offshore wind and wave energy can effectively address the challenges faced by offshore wind and wave energy development, reduce costs, and improve the stability of power generation and output. This article introduces the current status of sea area utilization and marine functional zoning in Zhejiang Province and proposes a site selection method to identify the most suitable sea area for the construction of co-located offshore wind and wave farms in Zhejiang. First, a geographic information systems database was developed to identify unsuitable areas for co-located offshore wind and wave farms. Then, a literature review was conducted to establish a system of resource, economic, and technical selection indicators, and the Delphi method was used to determine the weight of each indicator. Finally, the sea areas suitable for the construction of co-located offshore wind and wave farms were evaluated and ranked, and the order of power plant development was given. The results of the study illustrate the potential of developing co-located offshore wind and wave farms in Zhejiang, especially in the northern part of Zhoushan and the southern part of Taizhou.
... Hybrid systems are becoming more popular in terms of new concept ideas for effective offshore energy harnessing, as demonstrated by, e.g., the hybrid energy platform Poseidon [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. The idea of a hybrid system is that it can tackle multiple problems that arise with offshore technology, one example being the motion effect on floating offshore wind turbines caused by wave loads. ...
... Table 2 shows the literature findings for wave farm CAPEX, although it is difficult to estimate for an immature technology that lacks industrial consistency standardization. In the case of the initial acquirement cost of WEC devices, a reference price scale is drawn from the literature [17] and is based on a price estimation for the Pelamis 0.75 MW device. The upscaling of the device capacity reduces the initial WEC cost per MW due to the economic benefits of wave farm design [33,37]. ...
Recent years have seen the development of cutting-edge technology, such as offshore wind turbines and wave energy converters. It has previously been investigated whether integrating offshore wind turbines with wave energy converters is feasible. Diversifying the sources of offshore renewable energy also lowers investment costs and power fluctuation. This paper focuses on the development of a hybrid wind–wave energy system as well as the development of a techno-economic model to assess the system performance for a case study. A levelized cost of energy is calculated for the hybrid system by the Norwegian North Sea based on current knowledge about the technology costs. The economic benefits of sharing the common components of a wind-wave hybrid farm are inspected. Combinations of different wind–wave offshore hybrid systems are presented. Three technologies for both offshore wind turbines and wave energy converters are compared to find the most cost-efficient device pairing. The potential benefits of a shared infrastructure and the operational expenses are included in the evaluation. The combination yielding the lowest production cost of the cases studied is a combination of 160 MW of wind power and 40 MW of wave power, with a levelized cost of energy of EUR 107/MWh when the shared costs are 15%. In the study region, the average electricity price in Autumn 2022 was over EUR 300/MWh due to the European energy crisis.
... Ocean wave energy has the advantages of green, clean, sustainable utilization, and great development potential. It is implemented as a strategic resource in the world [1,2]. With technological progress of the energy collection equipment, the economic competitiveness of wave energy will continue to increase, which has great development value and application prospects [3,4]. ...
... The ERA5 model reanalysis data is employed in this study. The data is produced by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, distributed by the Copernicus Climate Data Store, and have been applied for multiple studies regarding wave energy assessment (e.g., [2]). The calculation periods of the model data for the sites are the same as those of the observation periods. ...
The northern coastal region of the South China Sea (SCS) is the key area for wave energy research and application. Planning for wave energy resources and equipment development depends on the accurate assessment of energy distribution and variation characteristics. Based on in situ observation data for 19 months, this paper systematically assesses the wave energy resources of three typical coastal sites in the northern SCS. The results show that wave energy resources have significant temporal and spatial variabilities. The eastern part of the SCS’s northern shore has the most energy, followed by the western part and the center part. The mean energy densities during the observation period are 2.1, 0.75, and 0.33 kW/m, respectively. The energy density is relatively high in summer, followed by winter and autumn, and relatively low in spring. For example, the mean energy densities on the northeast coast of the SCS in the four seasons are 3.1, 1.8, 1.7, and 1.2 kW/m, respectively. Based on statistics for three in situ sites, the considerable energy is mostly contributed by the sea state with a wave height between 0.5 m and 1.5 m and a period between 5 s and 9 s. This study emphasizes the importance of in situ observations for wave energy measurement in nearshore locations, and the results may provide support for the planning and utilization of wave energy in the northern SCS.
... However, in recent years, considering the high potential of this renewable energy source [9], considerable efforts are being made to improve the efficiency of wave energy converters (WECs), [10,11]. The implementation of some new wave farms near the wind farms already deployed is a viable option from several points of view, such as reducing the variability of renewable energy and the costs of implementing the energy transport network, as well as increasing the energy production in a certain area [12]. For the countries bordering the Black Sea, the proximity of this marine environment can bring an important advantage regarding accessibility to renewable energy. ...
Nowadays the effects of the climate change on the environment and on the quality of our life become more and more obvious. Various studies pointed out the necessity to limit the global temperature increase below 1.5°C compared with pre-industrial levels. It is well known that a large part of greenhouse gas emissions is generated by the production of electricity and heat using fossil fuels. For this reason, an obvious measure to avoid the impacts of climate change is the utilisation of clean sources of energy to produce electricity. In the marine environment, there are various sources of renewable energy, and the exploitation of offshore wind energy is a successful example. The evaluations regarding the wind power potential in the Black Sea indicate that there are areas where the exploitation of wind energy would be effective, such as the Romanian nearshore. Also, the use of hybrid systems could make efficient also the exploitation of the wave energy if we take into account the high potential of certain seasons. Considering the above mentioned aspects, an analysis of the energy potential of the wind and waves in the Black Sea is made in this study based on some existing works, as well as on recent results. Aspects regarding the effect of the climate change on these resources in the future will also be discussed, under various scenarios, such as RCP4.5 or RCP8.5. These results are of interest to various stakeholders interested in investing in the exploitation of the renewable resources existing in the Black Sea and also for coastal protection.
... The modelled SWAN wave data shows good agreement with observations and provides a longer and unfragmented time series, compared to most measurement campaigns [56,57]. For the TNW region, SWAN simulates a yearly average wave energy of 15.22 kW/m for TNW, agreeing with North Sea wave energy resources described in literature [58]. Based on this average wave energy availability, the resulting capacity factor (CF) for the WaveStar in the modelled example is 36.4%. ...
To mitigate the effects of climate change, a significant percentage of future energy generation is set to come from renewable energy sources. This has led to a substantial increase of installed offshore wind in the North Sea in the last years (28 GW in 2021) and is projected to further accelerate to an installed capacity of 212 GW by 2050. Increasing the renewable energy grid penetration brings challenges, including 1) limitations in space availability and 2) the reliability of renewable energy systems in terms of grid balancing. In the North Sea, maritime space is getting scarce and the projected upscaling of offshore wind is putting pressure on the chemical-, biological, and physical balance of the marine ecosystem. Without economically viable large-scale storage systems, a renewable energy system focused on one intermittent source does not provide reliable baseload- and energy demand compliance. By integrating different supplementary offshore renewable energy sources into multi-source parks output becomes smoother, while the energy yield per area increases. Despite multiple studies stating the benefits of multi-source energy parks of either wind and wave energy or wind and PV energy, no study has been conducted on the co-location of all three offshore renewables. This study combines and analyzes the three offshore renewable energy sources: wave-, offshore PV- and wind energy in the example of Ten Noorden van de Waddeneilanden, a future wind farm north of the Dutch Wadden Islands. The additional renewables are allocated within the wind turbine spacing, taking into account safety zones and maintenance corridors. Co-location of these renewables increases the extracted energy density by 22%, making more efficient use of the limited available marine space. Moreover, the park output becomes smoother as the yearly-averaged coefficient of variation decreases by 13%, the capacity factor with respect to the export cable increases by 19%, and the hours where the output of the park is below 20% of the export cable capacity decreases by 86.5%.
... At present, homogenized altimetry databases like the ESA Sea_State_cci [15] offer the advantage of global coverage and a large time span of 26 years to assess the wave energy resource. Among the previous efforts using satellite altimeter data, [16][17][18][19][20] can be mentioned. Without any doubt, satellite altimetry missions have brought a new perspective and paved the way for the ocean renewable energy assessment from space. ...
This study considers assessing the wave energy potential in the French façade. The objective is to investigate the validity of satellite altimetry-based estimates of wave renewable energy potential using the homogenized multi-mission altimeter data made available by the European Space Agency Sea State Climate Change Initiative (Sea_State_cci). The empirical model of Gommenginger et al. (2003) is adopted to calculate the wave period, which is required to estimate the wave power density from both the radar altimeter’s significant wave height and backscatter coefficient. The study comprises 26 years of data, from January 1992 to December 2018. In the winter season, the wave resource is abundant and higher than in other seasons. On average, the highest value is about 99,000 W/m offshore. In the coastal zone, the wave power density is also relatively high, with values of about 60,000 W/m in the North and South regions of the French Atlantic coast. The seasonal spatial distribution of the wave power density is presented to identify potential sites of interest for the development of the marine renewable energy sector and to make renewable energy supply more resilient. The analysis reveals large inter-annual and interseasonal variability in the wave resource in the French façade in the past 26 years. The study shows the feasibility of satellite altimetry-based assessments of wave renewable energy potential as a promising and powerful tool.
... However, in recent years, considering the high potential of this renewable energy source [9], considerable efforts are being made to improve the efficiency of wave energy converters (WECs), [10,11]. The implementation of some new wave farms near the wind farms already deployed is a viable option from several points of view, such as reducing the variability of renewable energy and the costs of implementing the energy transport network, as well as increasing the energy production in a certain area [12]. For the countries bordering the Black Sea, the proximity of this marine environment can bring an important advantage regarding accessibility to renewable energy. ...
Nowadays the effects of the climate change on the environment and on the quality of our life become more and more obvious. Various studies pointed out the necessity to limit the global temperature increase below 1.5°C compared with pre-industrial levels. It is well known that a large part of greenhouse gas emissions is generated by the production of electricity and heat using fossil fuels. For this reason, an obvious measure to avoid the impacts of climate change is the utilisation of clean sources of energy to produce electricity. In the marine environment, there are various sources of renewable energy, and the exploitation of offshore wind energy is a successful example. The evaluations regarding the wind power potential in the Black Sea indicate that there are areas where the exploitation of wind energy would be effective, such as the Romanian nearshore. Also, the use of hybrid systems could make efficient also the exploitation of the wave energy if we take into account the high potential of certain seasons. Considering the above mentioned aspects, an analysis of the energy potential of the wind and waves in the Black Sea is made in this study based on some existing works, as well as on recent results. Aspects regarding the effect of the climate change on these resources in the future will also be discussed, under various scenarios, such as RCP4.5 or RCP8.5. These results are of interest to various stakeholders interested in investing in the exploitation of the renewable resources existing in the Black Sea and also for coastal protection.
... Reguero et al. (2019) studied the long-term seasonal and inter-annual variations in global mean WP using model data of 61 years. Similarly, a study by Rusu and Rusu (2021) assessed the WP in the North Sea based on ERA5 data of 30 years. Many such studies have been carried out globally and regionally to discuss the monthly, annual, seasonal variations in the WP (Arinaga & Cheung, 2012;Aydo gan et al., 2013;Barstow et al., 2008;Bromirski & Cayan, 2015;Bromirski & Kossin, 2008;Gunn & Stock-Williams, 2012;Hemer et al., 2017Hemer et al., , 2018Mackay, 2012;Santo et al., 2015;Yang & Oh, 2020). ...
The present study analyses the trend and variability in wave parameters (wave height and wave period) and wave power (WP) in the North Indian Ocean (NIO). The impact of climatic modes such as El‐Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) on the WP of NIO has been investigated using the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts reanalysis datasets (ERA5) for the period 1959–2021. It is observed that along the west coast of India (WCI), the coastal WP increased from south to north during summer whereas, in winter and other seasons the WP increased from north to south. Instead, along the east coast of India (ECI), WP is higher on the north than the south, always. The annual WP climatology along the Indian coasts reveals that WP potential is higher along/adjacent to WCI than the ECI. It was observed that the total significant wave height (SWH) WP anomalies during normal and positive IOD (pIOD) events are mainly dominated by swell WP, whereas during El Niño and combined ENSO‐IOD events, dominated by wind seas. During the peak of pure El‐Niño, the SWH WP shows a basin‐wide increase in WP anomalies. However, during summer, SWH WP showed increasing trends over Bay of Bengal. It is evident from the composite analysis that annual averaged WP anomalies are decreasing in normal, pure pIOD and combined events, but El‐Niño is found to increase the WP anomalies over the Arabian Sea in the region north of 20°N. The present study advocates that a detailed analysis of WP along the Indian coastal regions is beneficial to the renewable energy industries to utilize this as an important energy resource.
... In recent years, renewable marine energy is one of the most popular research topics, and the North Sea is the right marine environment with a great potential in terms of both wind energy and wave energy (Rusu & Rusu, 2021), due to its position and characteristics. ...
The North Sea is one of the largest seas in Europe in terms of maritime traffic. It is positioned between Norway, England, France, Germany, and Denmark, a position that positively favors the maritime sector and the energy sector. Also, the North Sea area is a rich and important natural area for fishing. Due to the exchange of water with the Atlantic Ocean and the Baltic Sea, this sea is constantly changing and developing a complex ecosystem, which scientists are constantly studying to understand. The energetic potential places the North Sea on the first position in the European seas, and because of this in this area they are found in most wind turbines, in proportion of 70%. In this paper, a study was performed on the characteristics of the North Sea and maritime traffic in this area, as well as the exploitation potential both in terms of oil and wind turbines. The wind and wave conditions for the last twenty years, based on ERA5 data, from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) were also studied.
... The potential wind energy of the North Sea can contribute substantially to increase the source of renewable energy, and perhaps even to combat global warming [4][5][6]. Moreover, in the North Sea seems to be efficient the wave energy exploitation and wave farms could be implemented near the already operating wind farms [7]. In this way, the wave farms use the existing infrastructures of the wind farms, and their economic efficiency increases. ...
Green energy is the key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and thus helping to combat climate change. Modern wind turbines have been implemented all over the world and represent a significant alternative for the elimination of fossil fuels or other methods of obtaining energy. Europe plays an important role in the offshore wind energy sector, with wind farms installed in 11 countries, of which the mainstay is the North Sea. The North Sea is home to the world’s largest offshore wind farm, completed in 2020, with a capacity of 1218 MW of 174 turbines. This study presents an overview of the wind farms deployed in the North Sea, the types of turbines, and the types of structures for turbines. Based on the characteristics of the North Sea, the classification society’s rules for the environmental conditions that these structures must comply with were also investigated.
... Wave energy (WE) is a kind of green power, which is inexhaustible in supply and always available for use. The conversion and utilization of WE have been paid great attention in recent years, which could be supplied to the ocean islands and engineering [1,2]. However, marine energy equipment would be damaged in marine disasters by the excessive dynamics and energy accompanied by wind and waves [3]. ...
Based on a two-month simultaneous in-situ wave dataset of two observational sites in the coastal regions of the northern South China Sea, the variabilities and richness of the wave energy (WE) during typhoon Lupit (2021) are studied and the discrepancies in WE responses between the two sites are also discussed. The results show that the WE of the sites mainly consists of the ocean condition whose significant wave height ranges from 0.5 to 1.5 m and energy period ranges from 5 to 8 s. It is suggested that the richness of WE could be significantly enhanced by the passage of the typhoon. For example, the energy density is enhanced by 2–4 times, i.e. from 1.2–4.2 kW/m to 5.9–9.5 kW/m, and the available level frequency maintains as high as 100%. Moreover, the increase in WE caused by typhoons occurs several days before the passage of the typhoon and can maintain for nearly a week after its passage. Further analysis reveals that the variable intensity of the WE responses to typhoons is mainly decided by the wind speed of the typhoon and the distance between the typhoon centers to the location of the sites. Our study highlights the possibility and importance of WE to meet the basic power consumption of equipment in coastal regions, under extreme weather conditions when wind energy and solar energy are both difficult to be utilized.
... Furthermore, the Baltic Sea is among the coastal environments where the offshore wind farms have been systematically implemented in the last decades, with 18 operational wind farms [16] . However, the most significant European marine area, and probably one of the most significant in the world, from the point of view of harnessing the marine energy resources is the North Sea, where around 40 wind projects are nowadays operating [17] . Furthermore, huge projects are planned for this marine area, where an artificially constructed island is planned to be built by Denmark 80 kilometres from the shore of the Jutland peninsula. ...
Journal of Marine Science represented even from the beginning an open framework dedicated to the presentation of the most significant discoveries and insights in marine science research. Taking into account the high concern of the scientific community related to the climate dynamics, on one hand, and the expected development and very
ambitious targets related to the marine renewable energy sector, on the other hand, climate change effects in marine and coastal environment, as well as the assessment of the main challenges and advances associated to the extraction of marine renewable energy are considered topics of extremely high interest for our journal. In this way, we
hope that Journal of Marine Science will play an active role in following the green road towards a low carbon future.
Son yıllarda, sürdürülebilir bir dünya için yenilenemeyen enerji kaynaklarının kullanımının azaltılması gerekliliği giderek daha belirgin hale gelmektedir. Fosil yakıt tüketiminden, daha temiz bir enerjiye geçiş döneminde, yenilenebilir enerji kaynakları hızla gelişme göstermektedir. Bu gelişmeler ışığında su enerjisi teknolojilerine odak artmaktadır. Enerji potansiyeli için gerekli şartlar karşılandığı sürece; su kaynaklı enerji üretim projelerinin uygulanması ülkelerin refahına katkı sağlama potansiyeli taşımaktadır. Yenilenebilir enerji üretiminde rekabete konu olan su kaynaklı enerji üretimi için; literatürde kıtalar arası enerjinin incelendiği, su potansiyelinin ölçüldüğü, santraller için uygun yer seçiminin yapıldığı, dalga – iklim ilişkisinin incelendiği, okyanus enerjisi teknolojileri konularını içeren çalışmalarda geleneksel teknikler yanı sıra yapay zekâ tekniklerine de yer verilmektedir. Deneysel modelleme saha ölçüm tekniklerinin yüksek maliyetli olduğu, sayısal yöntemlerin parametre ve girdi hazırlık sürecinin zahmetli olması sebebiyle çeşitli yapay zekâ yöntemleri, su kaynaklı enerji üretimi teknolojisinde yoğun şekilde kullanılmaktadır. Yapay sinir ağları da bu alanda karşılaşılan problemlerin çözümünde kullanılan tekniklerden birisi olarak yer almaktadır. Bu derlemede, Asya ve Avrupa kıtasında su kaynaklı enerji üretimi hakkında yapılmış mevcut çalışmalardan bahsedilmekte, Türkiye’nin su enerjisi potansiyelini, mevcut literatür incelenerek ortaya konulmaktadır. Ayrıca yapay zekâ tekniklerinden yapay sinir ağı metodunun su enerjisi teknolojilerinde ne şekilde ve hangi ölçüde kullanıldığı ve kullanılan yöntemlerle ilgili literatüre yer verilmiştir.
It is certain that the green road toward a low-carbon future represents the most reliable development model for society. In this context, in 2019 the European Green Deal was publically released. This is a programmatic document designing the most important pillars of the near future development in the European Union. On this green road, offshore renewable energy takes a very important place. From this perspective, the objective of the present work is to perform an analysis of the wind power resources along the European Seas. This includes the Baltic, North, Mediterranean, and Black Seas and is based on rea-nalysis wind data, for the past 40-year period and on data provided by RCMs for the future, corresponding to the most credible RCP and SSP scenarios. The results show that wind energy is expected to increase in the future in various locations and this increase will be higher in the near future, followed by a small decrease by the end of the century. For most of the coastal environments studied , it was noticed that in the locations with high wind power resources a higher seasonal variability is characteristic than for the locations with lower wind resources. The number and intensity of extreme events (characterized by hurricane level wind speeds are also expected to be enhanced in the future, especially in the North, Mediterranean, and the Black Seas. Many areas from the Euro-pean nearshore appear to be appropriate for joint renewable energy projects; wind-wave, wind-solar, and wind-wave-solar.
The higher dynamics of the climate change becomes obvious in the last decades and there is enough evidence that the accelerated economic development of the last century, and especially the high energy demand and production, influences this dynamics. In this context, the European Green Deal draws an ambitious roadmap towards a low carbon future and on a sustainable development based on clean and renewable energy sources. From this perspective, a special attention is paid to the offshore renewable energy (ORE) sector. ORE is abundant and its effective extraction may represent one of the most significant technological challenges of the 21st century. Motivated by the above reasons, the objective of the present work is to analyze the ORE potential in the coastal environment of Europe. The emphasis is given to the offshore wind, which represents already certitude in the Baltic and North Seas and a rapid extension is also expected in the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. The analysis of the wind energy potential along the entire European nearshore is made based on data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast considering the last three decades. Furthermore, an analysis of the future expected wind data is also carried out considering the results provided by the Regional Climate Models until the end of the 21st century under various RCP (acronym from Representative Concentration Pathway) scenarios. Finally, the synergy between the wind power and other offshore renewable energy resources is also discussed. This concerns especially the wave and solar energy. The work is still ongoing and the future dynamics of the resources is going to be evaluated considering also the SSP (acronym from Shared Socioeconomic Pathway) scenarios.
The objective of this work is to evaluate the wave energy potential in the European seas (Mediterranean Sea, Black Sea and Baltic Sea) using ERA5 dataset. This is the latest ocean wave climate reanalysis data produced by ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). The analysis covers a 30-year time period (1989-2018). In each basin, reference points located in the coastal environment were se-lected for the wave energy assessment. The chosen points correspond to the ERA5 grids. In this way no fur-ther data processing was necessary. The characteristics of the main wave parameters over the target areas are provided with 0.5º spatial resolution and 3 hours temporal resolution. The wave power in each reference point was computed based on the significant wave height and wave energy period, values available from ERA5 dataset. The temporal variability of the wave energy over the 30-year is also investigated. The mean wave energy potential and its annual, seasonal and monthly variations are computed and analysed.
The objective of the present study is to show a comprehensive assessment of the wind resource dynamics along the Spanish coastal environment of the Iberian Peninsula. After studying the historical resources (reported at 100 m height) for the 20-year period from 1999 to 2018 by analyzing the ERA5 time series of wind speed data, the 10 locations with highest historical wind resources are considered. For these, the study of the future dynamics for the 30-year period from 2021 to 2050 under the climate change scenario RCP 4.5 is carried out. After further selection, mean and maximum values, as well as the seasonal and monthly variability of the wind power density, are obtained for six locations along the Spanish coasts. Furthermore, a performance and economic dynamics assessment is presented for four different wind turbine technologies with rated capacities ranging between 3 and 9.5 MW. A further comparison with other locations in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea is presented to provide a critical image of the Spanish wind resources dynamics in the European framework. The results indicate a noticeable gain of wind resources in various locations of the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, with others presenting slight losses.
The aim of the present work is to provide an overview of the possible implications involving the influence of a generic marine energy farm on the nearshore processes. Several case studies covering various European coastal areas are considered for illustration purposes. These include different nearshore areas, such as the Portuguese coast, Sardinia Island or a coastal sector close to the Danube Delta in the Black Sea. For the case studies related to the Portuguese coast, it is noted that a marine energy farm may reduce the velocity of the longshore currents, with a complete attenuation of the current velocity for some case studies in the coastal area from Leixoes region being observed. For the area located close to the Danube Delta, it is estimated that in the proposed configuration, a marine energy farm would provide an efficient protection against the wave action, but it will have a relatively negligible impact on the longshore currents. Summarizing the results, we can conclude that a marine energy farm seems to be beneficial for coastal protection, even in the case of the enclosed areas, such as the Mediterranean or Black seas, where the erosion generated by the wave action represents a real problem.
Coastal areas are defined by numerous opportunities and threats. Among them we can mention emerging renewable projects and on the other hand coastal erosion. In the present work, the impact of a generic wind–wave farm on the nearshore waves and currents in the vicinity of the Porto Ferro inlet (northwest Sardinia) was assessed. Using a reanalysis wave dataset that covers a 40-year interval (1979–2018), the most relevant wave characteristics in the target area were identified. These can reach during winter a maximum value of 7.35 m for the significant wave height. As a next step, considering a modeling system that combines a wave model (simulating waves nearshore (SWAN)) and a surf model, the coastal impact of some generic marine energy farms defined by a transmission coefficient of 25% was assessed. According to the results corresponding to the reference sites and lines defined close to the shore, it becomes obvious that there is a clear attenuation in terms of significant wave heights, and as regards current velocities, although the general tendency for them to decrease, there are, however, some situations when the values of the nearshore current velocities can also decrease. Finally, we can mention that the presence of a marine energy farm seems to be beneficial for the beach stability in this particular coastal environment, and in some cases the transformation of the breaking waves from plunging to spilling is noticed.
The main objective of this article is to provide a comprehensive picture of existing wave technologies being used for wave energy extraction. The overview will explain their potential and also the challenges wave technologies face. The article will also briefly discuss the benefits of combined offshore wind-wave projects, also known as hybrids. Key factors and impacts on relevant existing wave technologies will be outlined, including capacity factor and capture width. Finally the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) targets for the most promising technologies will be discussed.
In the present work, the wind and wave conditions in the European nearshore are assessed considering a total of 118 years of data, covering the time interval from 1900 to 2017. In this context, special attention has been given to the western European coasts that are facing the ocean. In order to do this, the reanalysis data coming from three state-of-the-art databases (ERA Interim, ERA20C, and NCEP) were processed. Furthermore, a more complete picture was provided by also including the satellite measurements coming from the AVISO (Archiving, Validation and Interpretation of Satellite Oceanographic Data) project in the analysis. From this perspective, the distribution of the two marine energy resources was discussed, which throughout energetic maps—and further, on some specific reference sites—were defined at a distance of 50 km from the shore for more detailed analysis and comparison. As expected, the places located in the vicinity of the United Kingdom present more important energy resources, but some other interesting sites were also highlighted. Furthermore, although each dataset is defined by particular features, there is a similar pattern in the identification of the sites’ attractiveness, regardless of the database considered for assessment.
The objective of this work is to assess the synergy of the marine resources in the vicinity of several European offshore sites, in order to analyze the viability of the combined wind-wave renewable projects. The reference sites considered for evaluation are located in the vicinity of the European coasts, being already taken into account for various marine projects. As a first step, based on the dataset provided by the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts for the 10-year interval 2005–2014, it was possible to analyze the joint seasonal distribution of the offshore resources. In the second part of the paper, based on the technical characteristics of various offshore wind turbines and wave energy converters, it was possible to identify the
performances of some systems for wind and wave energy conversion. Finally, it can be also highlighted that the results presented in the present work can be considered interesting and useful, since they provide some insights regarding the potential of some operational European sites to support colocated wind-wave projects.
http://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/75iaUQrnGXzEmHSVFrwI/full
The higher requests concerning the large scale implementation of the renewable energy imposed by the EU directives implies a substantial enhancement of the renewable energy extraction all over Europe. Wind turbines entered in the last decades gradually in the common landscape and the success of the wind power industry renewed the interest in discovering what might work in the sea. On the other hand, it becomes quite obvious nowadays that wave power will play an important role in the global energy portfolio. Combined offshore wind-wave projects, also known as hybrids, hold great potential down the line when wave technologies will become more established. At that point, wave production might compensate for the intermittent offshore wind, while economies of scale developed from offshore wind could accelerate cost reduction for wave components. Despite a certain degree of uncertainty related to the variability in the wave-wind climate, improvements in the accuracy of evaluating the environmental data in coastal areas would also enhance the accuracy of the predictions that future energy converters yield. Another important problem that arises together with the implementation of the energy farms in the coastal environment is related to the correct assessment of their impact on the littoral dynamics. From this perspective, the proposed work presents the main challenges related to the wave energy extraction in the nearshore. This includes also the identification of the best European locations from the point of view of the synergy between the wind and the wave power.
The main objective of the present work was to assess and compare the wave power resources in various offshore and nearshore areas. From this perspective, three different groups of coastal environments were considered: the western Iberian nearshore, islands and an enclosed environment with sea waves, respectively. Some of the most representative existent wave converters were evaluated in the analysis and a second objective was to compare their performances at the considered locations, and in this way to determine which is better suited for potential commercial exploitation. In order to estimate the electric power production expected in a certain location, the bivariate distributions of the occurrences corresponding to the sea states, defined by the significant wave height and the energy period, were constructed in each coastal area. The wave data were provided by hindcast studies performed with numerical wave models or based on measurements. The transformation efficiency of the wave energy into electricity is evaluated via the load factor and also through the capture width, defined as the ratio between the electric power estimated to be produced by each specific wave energy converters (WEC) and the expected wave power corresponding to the location considered. Finally, by evaluating these two different indicators, comparisons of the performances of three WEC types (Aqua Buoy, Pelamis and Wave Dragon) in the three different groups of coastal environments considered have been also carried out. The work provides valuable information related to the effectiveness of various technologies for the wave energy extraction that would operate in different coastal environments.
The potential for wave energy extraction can 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 simulations were performed in some medium resolution areas covering the northern and central parts of Portugal continental, which are traditionally considered richer in wave power resources. The present work allows the identification of some locations in the continental coastal environment of Portugal with greater potential from the point of view of wave power resources. An important observation is related to the fact that the wave power depends on the product between the energy density spectrum and the group velocity of waves. This means that, although the significant wave height is a relevant parameter when assessing the wave power in a specific site, a location having in general higher wave heights is not necessarily also the richest in wave power.
The objective of the present work is to analyse the expected dynamics of the wind energy in the Baltic Sea. From the 18 offshore wind farms currently operating there, 10 locations with higher installed capacity have been selected as reference. The wind data delivered by a Regional Climate Model (RCM) are processed and analysed considering the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios 4.5 and 8.5. The novelty of the proposed study consists in the fact that this is focused on the assessment of the expected average and extreme wind power, considering the 30-year time window 2021–2050. Furthermore, in order to make a comparison, an analysis of the historical wind data coming from the same RCM corresponding to the past 30-year period 1976–2005 is also carried out. The results indicate a slight enhancement of the wind power, which is higher for RCP4.5. Some locations where the wind power enhancement is expected to be more significant have been also identified. Finally, it can be noticed that while for the historical data the trend indicates a constant tendency, as regards the near future period (2021–2050) the trends show a tendency of enhancement of the wind power, which is higher for RCP 8.5.
Starting from the observation that an important next stage in exploiting the ocean energy is to install large arrays of several identical devices in order to raise their overall electricity production, the present work has as objective to assess the local and coastal impact of a large wave farm that would operate in the Portuguese coastal environment. The target area is the Portuguese maritime pilot zone, São Pedro de Moel, which is located in the central part of the Portuguese continental nearshore. A generic wave farm was considered and various transmission situations were analyzed. The study started with the situation without wave farm (zero absorption) and subsequently different scenarios were considered by increasing gradually the conditions to the hypothetic case of the total absorption. For each case study, model simulations were performed covering the entire year 2009 using a wave prediction system based on Wave Watch 3, for the wave generation at the level of the entire North Atlantic Ocean, and on SWAN, for the coastal wave transformation. In this way, a comprehensive picture of the possible impact of the wave farm is provided. The results show that the presence of a wave farm operating offshore has a strong influence on the wave conditions immediately down wave. Although this influence is usually attenuated at the level of the coastline, it appears as obvious a general decrease in terms of significant wave height due to the wave farm, but also some other wave parameters are modified.
Soares Guedes, Carlos. Assessment of the changes induced by a wave energy farm in the nearshore wave conditions
- Eugen Bento A Rute
- Paulo Rusu
- Martinho
Bento A Rute, Eugen Rusu, Paulo Martinho, Soares Guedes, Carlos. Assessment of the changes induced by a wave energy farm in
the nearshore wave conditions. Comput Geosci 2014;71(2014):50-61.
Global reanalysis: goodbye ERA-Interim, hello ERA5
- Hersbach Hans
- Bill Bell
- Paul Berrisford
- Andras Horányi
- Munoz Sabater Joaquin
- Julien Nicolas
Hersbach Hans, Bill Bell, Paul Berrisford, Andras Horányi, Munoz Sabater Joaquin, Julien Nicolas, et al. Global reanalysis: goodbye
ERA-Interim, hello ERA5. ECMWF Newsl 2019;159:17-24.
ESA sea state climate change initiative: global remote sensing merged multimission monthly gridded significant wave height, L4 product, version 1.1. Centre for Environmental Data Analysis
- Piollé Jean-François
- Guillaume Dodet
- Yves Quilfen
Piollé Jean-François, Guillaume Dodet, Yves Quilfen. ESA sea state climate change initiative: global remote sensing merged multimission monthly gridded significant wave height, L4 product, version 1.1. Centre for Environmental Data Analysis; 2020, 2020.
Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5285/47140d618dcc40309e1edbca7e773478.
Global reanalysis: goodbye ERA-Interim, hello ERA5
- Hersbach