Wave Energy Resource Assessment for Exploitation—A Review

Abstract

Over recent decades, the exploitation of wave energy resources has sparked a wide range of technologies dedicated to capturing the available power with maximum efficiency, reduced costs, and minimum environmental impacts. These different objectives are fundamental to guarantee the development of the marine wave energy sector, but require also refined assessments of available resource and expected generated power to optimize devices designs and locations. We reviewed here the most recent resource characterizations starting from (i) investigations based on available observations (in situ and satellite) and hindcast databases to (ii) refined numerical simulations specifically dedicated to wave power assessments. After an overall description of formulations and energy metrics adopted in resource characterization, we exhibited the benefits, limitations and potential of the different methods discussing results obtained in the most energetic locations around the world. Particular attention was dedicated to uncertainties in the assessment of the available and expected powers associated with wave–climate temporal variability, physical processes (such as wave–current interactions), model implementation and energy extraction. This up-to-date review provided original methods complementing the standard technical specifications liable to feed advanced wave energy resource assessment.

Improving Significant Wave Height Forecasts Using a Joint Empirical Mode Decomposition–Long Short-Term Memory Network

“…Surface gravity waves (hereinafter, waves) are crucial physical phenomena to be considered in ocean engineering and renewable energy [1][2][3], shipping [4,5], scour protection, offshore wind foundations and breakwaters [6,7], amongst other activities. As such, accurate forecasts of evolution are indispensable.…”

On Correlation between Wind and Wave Storms

“…The study of offshore climate plays a key role for any activity developed in offshore sea environment, including navigation, oil and gas, and offshore wind and wave farms. In this context the research community focuses on a variety of topics that ranges from the forecasting of environmental data [1][2][3][4][5] to the investigation of climate changes [6][7][8][9], energy resource assessment [10][11][12][13][14], simulation methods [15,16], and design and operation of offshore systems [17][18][19]. With regard to offshore structures and energy systems, the knowledge of climatic events occurring and their impact on any device is paramount both at design and at operational stages.…”

Breaking-Down and Parameterising Wave Energy Converter Costs Using the CapEx and Similitude Methods

“…Although, wave renewables receive the abovementioned supports, including international collaborations and enhancing events such as the Wave Energy Prize [19] and the MARINET programs [20], this field is still at an early stage of development in comparison to other renewables such as the offshore wind. Therefore, methods must be elaborated to enable faster and more reliable calculations of the major economic indexes used to compare renewables [21,22], and thereby to foster the communication of wave renewables in order to increase the expectations. The levelised cost of energy (LCoE) is one of the most important metrics used to compare renewables [18].…”