Characterising the wave power potential of the Scottish coastal environment

The study focuses around the energetic waters of Scotland that has expressed high interest in the development of wave energy farms. There are only a few long-term suitable studies characterising coastal locations. A detail coastal resource assessment is provided, focusing on wave energy and site characterisation. Mean nearshore energy content in the Western coasts is ≥50 kW/m and on the East ≈10 kW/m. Monthly and seasonal analyses outline available resource and annual variations. Availability of production is also examined, West coastlines present higher levels, however, depending on resource and wave converters operational range significant differences are shown. Availability levels on the East coastline are low ≈40% due to lower wave heights, while Western locations record consistently over 80% at both scenarios examined. Results discuss the potential applicability of favourable wave converters, and characteristics which achieve maximum utilisation based on the local environment

Wave energy resource modelling and energy pattern identification using a spectral wave model

The benefits of the Oceans and Seas have been exploited by societies for many centuries; the marine offshore and naval sectors have been the predominant users of the waters. It has been overlooked until recently, that significant amounts of energy can be harnessed by waves, providing an additional abundant resource for renewable energy generation. The increasing energy needs of current societies have led to the consideration of waves as an exploitable renewable resource. During the past decades, advancements have been made towards commercialising wave energy converters (WECs), though significant knowledge gap exists on the accurate estimation of the potential energy that can be harnessed. In order, to enhance our understanding of opportunities within wave energy highly resolved long-term resource assessment of potential sites are necessary, which will allow for not only a detailed energy estimation methodology but also information on extreme waves that are expected to affect the survivability and reliability of future wave energy converters. This research work aims to contribute the necessary knowledge to the estimation of wave energy resources from both highly energetic and milder sea environment, exhibiting the opportunities that lay within these environments. A numerical model SWAN (Simulating WAves Nearshore), based on spectral wave formulation has been utilised for wave hindcasting which was driven by high resolution temporal and spatially varying wind data. The capabilities of the model, allow a detailed representation of several coastal areas, which are not usually accurately resolved by larger ocean models. The outcome of this research provides long-term data and characterisation of the wave environment and its extremes for the Scottish region. Moreover, investigation on the applicability of wave energy in the Mediterranean Sea, an area which was often overlooked, showed that wave energy is more versatile than expected. The outcomes provide robust estimations of extreme wave values for coastal waters, alongside valuable information about the usage of numerical modelling and WECs to establish energy pattern production. Several key tuning factors and inputs such as boundary wind conditions and computational domain parameters are tested. This was done in a systematic way in order to establish a customized solution and detect parameters that may hinder the process and lead to erroneous results. The uncertainty of power production by WECs is reduced by the introduction of utilization rates based on the long-term data, which include annual and seasonal variability. This will assist to minimize assumptions for energy estimates and financial returns in business plans. Finally, the importance of continuous improvements in resource assessment is stressed in order to enhance our understanding of the wave environment

Assessment of wave power stability and classification with two global datasets

Global distribution of the wave climate and energy using a re-analysis dataset provides the opportunity to study spatio-temporal variation of different parameters, and offers inputs for future sustainability plans. The study assesses two global scale products ERA5 and ERA-Interim, evaluating differentiation in wave climate and energy parameters. Results compare the performance globally and analyse the rate of change for wave power and its persistence characteristics. Based on results for the spatial distribution and rate of change for wave characteristics, wave power and joint distributions are expected to increase. The study provides novel information with a wave energy development index and rate of change globally, suggesting the most appropriate areas for further assessment based on the discussed criteria

Change of nearshore extreme wind and wave climate in Southeast Africa

Climate change impact assessment is vital in order to investigate not only the change of average wind and wave climate, but also the extreme events. Such kind of events can affect the activities in nearshore areas such as marine operation, as well as on design of coastal and marine structures. In this research, long-term assessment of wind and wave data has been conducted to determine the effect of climate change by comparing the dataset for historical and future projections. The analysis has been done mainly in nearshore areas and the results were discussed in order to evaluate the impact of climate change, quantitatively