A Detailed Assessment of the Wave Energy Resource at the Atlantic Marine Energy Test Site

Reduan Atan,Stephen Nash,Jamie Goggins

doi:10.3390/en9110967

Reduan Atan, Stephen Nash + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/en9110967

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Abstract

Wave characteristic assessments of wave energy test sites provide a greater understanding of prevailing wave conditions and are therefore extremely important to both wave energy test site operators and clients as they can inform wave energy converter design, optimisation, deployment, operation and maintenance. This research presents an assessment of the wave resource at the Atlantic Marine Energy Test Site (AMETS) on the west coast of Ireland based on 12-years of modelled data from January 2004 to December 2015. The primary aim is to provide an assessment of annual and seasonal wave characteristics and resource variability at the two deployment berths which comprise the site. A nested model has been developed using Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN) to replicate wave propagations from regional to local scale with a 0.05° resolution model covering the northeast Atlantic and a 0.0027° resolution model covering AMETS. The coarse and fine models have been extensively validated against available measured data within Irish waters. 12-year model outputs from the high resolution model were analysed to determine mean and maximum conditions and operational, high and extreme event conditions for significant wave height, energy period and power. Annual and seasonal analyses are presented. The 12-year annual mean P were 68 kW/m at Berth A (BA) and 57 kW/m at Berth B (BB). The resource shows strong seasonal and annual variations and the winter mean power levels were found to be strongly correlated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).

Highlights

The assessment of wave characteristics and wave energy resource at a specific location or area is necessary to determine an available wave resource with regard to wave energy harvesting.an understanding of wave characteristics as well as extreme wave events is critical for the engineering design of wave energy converters (WECs), especially for survivability as severe loadings on WECs can result from extreme wave events [1]
An understanding of wave characteristics as well as extreme wave events is critical for the engineering design of wave energy converters (WECs), especially for survivability as severe loadings on WECs can result from extreme wave events [1]
The primary aim of this research is an assessment of wave characteristics and wave energy resource at the Atlantic Marine Energy Test

Summary

Introduction

The assessment of wave characteristics and wave energy resource at a specific location or area is necessary to determine an available wave resource with regard to wave energy harvesting.an understanding of wave characteristics as well as extreme wave events is critical for the engineering design of wave energy converters (WECs), especially for survivability as severe loadings on WECs can result from extreme wave events [1]. The assessment of wave characteristics and wave energy resource at a specific location or area is necessary to determine an available wave resource with regard to wave energy harvesting. A minimum 10 years of data is recommended [2] for a wave resource assessment analysis. The primary aim of this research is an assessment of wave characteristics and wave energy resource at the Atlantic Marine Energy Test. 12-year high resolution modelled data for the period of January 2004 to December 2015 was used to carry out the assessment. Wave energy harvesting has become a major interest in Ireland. The typical annual average power resources of deep water waves around the globe

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