Abstract
The South China Sea is a major shipping hub between the West Pacific and Indian Oceans. In this region, the demand for energy is enormous, both for residents’ daily lives and for economic development. Wave energy and wind energy are two major clean and low-cost ocean sources of renewable energy. The reasonable development and utilization of these energy sources can provide a stable energy supply for coastal cities and remote islands of China. Before wave energy and wind energy development, however, we must assess the potential of each of these sources. Based on high-resolution and high-accuracy wave field data and wind field data obtained by ERA-Interim reanalysis for the recent 38-year period from 1979–2016, the joint development potential of wave energy and wind energy was assessed in detail for offshore and nearshore areas in the South China Sea. Based on potential installed capacity, the results revealed three promising areas for the joint development of nearshore wave energy and wind energy, including the Taiwan Strait, Luzon Strait and the sea southeast of the Indo-China Peninsula. For these three dominant areas (key stations), the directionality of wave energy and wind energy propagation were good in various seasons; the dominant wave conditions and the dominant wind conditions were the same, which is advantageous for the joint development of wave and wind energy. Existing well-known wave energy converters (WECs) are not suitable for wave energy development in the areas of interest. Therefore, we must consider the distributions of wave conditions and develop more suitable WECs for these areas. The economic and environmental benefits of the joint development of wave and wind energy are high in these promising areas. The results described in this paper can provide references for the joint development of wave and wind energy in the South China Sea.
Highlights
IntroductionCertain fossil energy resources, such as petroleum, natural gas and coal, are very limited and will diminish in the future
Energy sources are the material basis for human survival
The results show that the number of hours under theHnumber of hours can help us understand the occurrence of particular wave a wave condition with an s value of 0.5–1.0 m and a the wave period (Te) value of 4–5 s at station KS1 was the highest at condition each year which is meaningful for the design of wave energy converters (WECs)
Summary
Certain fossil energy resources, such as petroleum, natural gas and coal, are very limited and will diminish in the future. The overuse of conventional fossil energy will lead to serious environment pollution. To confront energy crises and environment pollution, many countries have focused on the exploitation and utilization of renewable energy sources. There are several abundant and renewable energy sources in the oceans, including current energy, tidal energy, thermal gradient energy, ocean salinity energy, and wave and ocean wind energy. Among these types of energy, wave and wind energy have the greatest potential, and are the most valuable type of ocean energy, providing inexhaustible energy sources without carbon
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