A methodology to determine the power performance of wave energy converters at a particular coastal location

The issues associated with Ireland's over reliance on fossil fuels to meet energy demands have sparked an interest in renewable energy. Renewable energy resources typically are intermittent and vary significantly in energy intensity. Tidal energy however has the advantage of predictability over large time scales and high power densities. A study of Ireland's tidal-current-energy resource has identified several viable sites. As part of this resource assessment, Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers were installed at two locations along Ireland's west coast, at a site in the Bulls Mouth and the Shannon Estuary. The Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers measured tidal current speed and direction at 30 minute intervals over a 30 day period at a range of depths through the water column. This is the first time the measured data appears in the literature as it has only recently been made public. This paper presents tidal current speed and direction, frequency of occurrence of speed, tidal roses at several depths through the water column, and a comparison of theoretical tidal-current-speed profiles with measured data for a site in the Bulls Mouth and in the Shannon Estuary. The paper compares power density at both sites over a lunar month and also proposes a best fit power law exponent with the measured data through the water column. Finally, the paper presents an energetic performance comparison for a tidal current turbine operating at both sites. The data presented in this paper can be used in the design process to estimate the hydrodynamic and structural performance of a tidal current turbine operating under real-life conditions. The data can also be used to assess different control strategies and to design a tidal current turbine to suit the site-specific characteristics.

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“…where E is the energy outputted by the turbine over a given period of time, T, and P r is the rated power of the turbine [33,34]. …”

Section: Seabed Descriptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ireland’s tidal energy resource; An assessment of a site in the Bulls Mouth and the Shannon Estuary using measured data

O'Rourke

Boyle²,

Reynolds³

2014

Energy Conversion and Management

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“…Traditionally, the assessment of the wave energy has been carried out for offshore deep water wave data [1,[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19], while, more recently, coastal areas have been investigated in order to locate hotspots [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. At the oceanic global scale, the richest wave power areas are between 40 • and 60 • latitude of both hemispheres [10].…”

Section: Assessment Of the Offshore Potentialmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some authors [25][26][27][28][29][30][31] propagated the most significant three or five wave cases representing winter/autumn average condition, a summer/spring average condition and a particularly energetic situation. Other authors [20,22,23,[32][33][34][35][36][37] propagated the whole events in the time series of the offshore numerical model or the offshore wave buoy measurements and estimated the available nearshore wave power. For the Mediterranean nearshore, the wave power in the western side of Sicily has been estimated to be close to 8 kW/m by Iuppa et al [23] and 5 kW/m by Monteforte et al [32].…”

Section: Assessment Of the Nearshore Potentialmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wave Energy Assessment and Performance Estimation of State of the Art Wave Energy Converters in Italian Hotspots

Vannucchi

Cappietti

2016

Sustainability

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This paper presents an assessment of offshore wave energy potential at the scale of the whole Mediterranean Sea. The offshore wave data were propagated, by means of numerical modeling, toward four Italian coastal areas, namely stretches of coast of Tuscany, Liguria, Sardinia and Sicily. For each area, the wave power and the monthly, seasonal and annual variability at water depths of 50 m and 15 m were analyzed and hotspots were located. The results show strong variability of the wave energy potential from point to point of the same area thus highlighting the need for spatially detailed analysis. The higher values of wave energy potential are located in the hotspots of Sardinia and Sicily, at 11.4 kW/m and 9.1 kW/m, respectively. The Tuscany and the Liguria hotspots are characterized, respectively, by 4.7 kW/m and 2.0 kW/m. In order to point out which state of the art WEC is best suited for the Italian areas, the performances of six different state of the art Wave Energy Converters (WECs) were evaluated. Finally, a comparison of the performances of each WEC in the selected Italian sites and in some European (EU) oceanic sites was conducted. The energy potential in the most energetic EU oceanic site, among those here investigated, is up to 38-times greater than the potentials in the studied Italian areas but the power output, of the best WEC technology, is no more than nine times greater.

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“…The key steps in the optimization process are the geometry tuning procedure and the Power Take Off control [27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. However, after that, a production efficiency-based design is proposed; a second stage of design for Reliability, Availability, and Maintainability (RAM) is required [34].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic Assessment of Overtopping BReakwater for Energy Conversion (OBREC): A Case Study in Western Australia

et al. 2016

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This paper constructs an optimal configuration assessment, in terms of the financial returns, of the Overtopping BReakwater for wave Energy Conversion (OBREC). This technology represents a hybrid wave energy harvester, totally embedded in traditional rubble mound breakwaters. Nine case studies along the southern coast of Western Australia have been analysed. The technique provides tips on how to estimate the quality of the investments, for benchmarking with different turbine strategy layouts and overlapping with the costs of traditional rubble mound breakwaters. Analyses of the offshore and nearshore wave climate have been studied by a high resolution coastal propagation model, forced with wave data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Inshore wave conditions have been used to quantify the exploitable resources. It has been demonstrated that the optimal investment strategy is nonlinearly dependent on potential electricity production due to outer technical constraints. The work emphasizes the importance of integrating energy production predictions in an economic decision framework for prioritizing adaptation investments.

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A methodology to determine the power performance of wave energy converters at a particular coastal location

Cited by 129 publications

References 34 publications

Ireland’s tidal energy resource; An assessment of a site in the Bulls Mouth and the Shannon Estuary using measured data

Ireland’s tidal energy resource; An assessment of a site in the Bulls Mouth and the Shannon Estuary using measured data

Wave Energy Assessment and Performance Estimation of State of the Art Wave Energy Converters in Italian Hotspots

Economic Assessment of Overtopping BReakwater for Energy Conversion (OBREC): A Case Study in Western Australia

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