Development of Web-Atlas of Available Wind and Wave Energy in the Coastal Zones of the Russian Seas: Information and Cartographic Support (on the Example of the Black Sea)

Abstract

According to earlier estimates, the Russian coasts have a high potential of wave and wind energy. At the same time, the use of several types of renewable energy sources (RES) allows us to overcome the inherent drawback–the inhomogeneity in time of the energy flow. Nowadays in Russia and abroad, the results of satellite observations, mathematical modeling and reanalysis data are widely used to assess the potential of wind and wave resources. The maps, the atlases, the databases and other information resources (both printed and electronic) are developed for use in the design, mathematical modeling of the power plants performance on the base of RES including hybrid ones. The paper presents the results of developing a Web Atlas of wave and wind energy for the coastal zone of the seas in the Russian Federation, demonstrates the methods for calculating wave and wind characteristics (SWAN spectral wave model), as well as data sources (wind speed reanalyses NCEP / CFSR and NCEP / CFSv2 for the periods 19792010 and 2011-2016). As the characteristics of the energy potential, mean annual values of the height of significant waves, length, period of waves, flux of wave energy, average specific power of the wind flow are calculated and analyzed. The tools for developing a Web Atlas prototype are discussed in detail. Web Atlas is based on the classical three-tier model which includes a storage subsystem (database server), a subsystem for analyzing and publishing data (directly a GIS server), and a Web application subsystem providing a user interface for interacting with data and mapping services (web server). The implementation of the Web Atlas has been carried out for the Black Sea waters. It is planned to further develop the atlas covering the coastal waters of all the seas of Russia.