Assessment of Energy Production Potential from Ocean Currents along the United States Coastline

Marine Renewable Energy

“…Furthermore, as outlined by Haas et al (2013), a single turbine has little to no effect on the upstream characteristics of the current, but a large number of devices can block the flow and reduce the current velocity, and hence reduce the generated power from each device. For the Minesto turbine that travels through a range of depths, this calculation method makes use of the instantaneous velocity magnitude at one depth, and thus, with the observed decreasing vertical velocity magnitude profile, this method of calculation has the potential to overestimate the total energy output from the system.…”

“…The method and procedure of model selection are documented in great detail in Haas et al (2013). Similar to , this study primarily relies on numerically modeled data providing high spatial and temporal resolution as well as statistically significant duration (∼7 years).…”

“…Ocean current resource characterisation studies have been performed for the Gulf Stream in the United States Haas et al 2013) and the Kuroshio Current near Japan and Taiwan . In recent years, interest in these currents has evolved closer to commercial development, so the physical characteristics of the currents and their possible impacts on power generation need to be identified and fully understood.…”

“…Recent investigations by Haas et al (2013) have shown that the Gulf Stream could potentially have an average power dissipation of 18.6 GW or 163 TWh/yr (serving the electricity needs of approximately 16 million households). Further, water is approximately 1,000 times denser than air resulting in high energy density in the oceans.…”

Review of Marine Hydrokinetic Power Generation and Power Plant

“…In particular, the U.S. west coast, Hawaii, and Alaska have wave resources that are among the strongest. The magnitudes and locations of the MHK energy resources given based on a series of resource assessment studies [2][3][4][5][6] are plotted in Figure 1, and the total resources for different types of MHK technologies is listed in Table 1. Note that the wave resource data was collected for 200-m water depth, and the 2012 U.S. electricity generation was estimated at 4054 TW-hr/year [1].…”