Assessing the European Wave Energy Resource

Abstract

The European Wave Energy Atlas (WERATLAS), developed within a R&D European project, includes a wide range of annual and seasonal wave-climate and wave-energy statistics for 85 offshore data points distributed along the Atlantic and Mediterranean European coasts. The data used are results of the numerical wind-wave WAM model, implemented at ECMWF, and buoy data for the North Sea, Norwegian Sea, and Barents Sea. A full verification of WAM results against buoy and satellite altimeter data revealed that the accuracy of the results is very good for the North Atlantic, but the hindcasts quality is lower for the Mediterranean, probably due to poorer accuracy of the input wind fields. The patterns of power level and power directional distribution over the Northeastern Atlantic are presented along with the interannual wave and power variability. The wave power level is much lower in the Mediterranean, where it is not possible to find a general pattern for the power level and its directional distribution.

Wave Energy Resource Assessment off the Coast of China around the Zhoushan Islands

“…This formula has been widely adopted [5][6][7]10,11,24,30] and has high accuracy, which can reduce the computational efforts.…”

“…Zheng et al [5] evaluated the wind wave energy and swell energy for global oceans in detail based on global wind wave fields and swell fields from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-40 reanalysis data over the last 45 years. Pontes et al [6] and Pontes [7] evaluated the wave energy in Europe's coastal waters in the Atlantic and Mediterranean by using the wave model Wave Modelling project (WAM). Soares et al [8] assessed the wave energy in detail along the Atlantic European coast by using WAVEWATCH-III and Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN).…”

Mapping and Assessment of the United States Ocean Wave Energy Resource

“…Such wave power density maps are published in wave energy atlases and resource assessments worldwide (Pontes 1998, ABP MER 2004, ESBI 2005, Cornett 2006, Hughes and Heap 2010, Mørk et al 2010. They also are published in…”

“…Wave energy atlases and resource assessments have been published for Canada (Cornett 2006), Ireland (ESBI 2005, the United Kingdom (ABP MER 2004), the European Union (Pontes 1998), Australia (Hughes and Heap 2010), and most recently, the major coastal regions of the world (Mørk et al 2010). All of these have mapped what our report terms "wave power density" in terms of kilowatts per meter (or its equivalent, megawatts per kilometer), and all have used this quantity to estimate the total available wave energy resource.…”

Wave energy converter with enhanced amplitude response at frequencies coinciding with Swedish west coast sea states by use of a supplementary submerged body

“…[3][4][5] It is well understood that a point absorber in resonance with the incident wave will achieve increased amplitude and speed and thereby transfer more energy than a system working off resonance. 5,6 Coasts facing the oceans are naturally the most attractive for wave energy conversion, coasts where the dominating sea state has wave periods of T e Ͼ 5 s. 7 It is therefore desirable to have a wave energy converter ͑WEC͒ system tuned to have a natural period of oscillation that coincide with sea state at the site. Methods to force the system into resonance via active control were proposed by Budal and Salter independently in the mid-1970s.…”