Economic Assessment of Overtopping BReakwater for Energy Conversion (OBREC): A Case Study in Western Australia

Pasquale Contestabile,Mariano Buccino,Enrico Di Lauro,Diego Vicinanza

doi:10.3390/su9010051

Abstract

This paper constructs an optimal configuration assessment, in terms of the financial returns, of the Overtopping BReakwater for wave Energy Conversion (OBREC). This technology represents a hybrid wave energy harvester, totally embedded in traditional rubble mound breakwaters. Nine case studies along the southern coast of Western Australia have been analysed. The technique provides tips on how to estimate the quality of the investments, for benchmarking with different turbine strategy layouts and overlapping with the costs of traditional rubble mound breakwaters. Analyses of the offshore and nearshore wave climate have been studied by a high resolution coastal propagation model, forced with wave data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Inshore wave conditions have been used to quantify the exploitable resources. It has been demonstrated that the optimal investment strategy is nonlinearly dependent on potential electricity production due to outer technical constraints. The work emphasizes the importance of integrating energy production predictions in an economic decision framework for prioritizing adaptation investments.

Highlights

A great number of wave energy converters (WECs hereinafter) have been developed over the last twenty years in order to transform wave energy into electrical energy (e.g., [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12])
The purpose is to couple technical and economic parameters that influence the economic profitability of the Overtopping BReakwater for wave Energy Conversion (OBREC) technology
Historical Australian wave buoys data are not collected in a unique data warehouse, compromising an easy consultation

Summary

Introduction

A great number of wave energy converters (WECs hereinafter) have been developed over the last twenty years in order to transform wave energy into electrical energy (e.g., [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]). Several studies have been carried out regarding the economic analysis of these devices, which is one of the main fields of research in marine renewable energy (e.g., [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23]). Both the social acceptance of a WEC and the economic appeal for investors and utility providers remain heavily dependent on costs vs payback analysis, that means competitively priced electricity supplies and reliability. For the case of shoreline devices, the construction techniques to be adopted are similar to those used for traditional maritime and coastal structures

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion