Abstract
Some types of renewable energy have been experiencing rapid evolution in recent decades, notably among the energies associated with the oceans, such as wave and current energies. The development of new energy conversion technologies for these two forms of energy has been offering a large number of equipment configurations and plant geometries for energy conversion. This process can be implemented aiming at the result of feasibility studies in places with energy potentials, establishing minimum feasibility limits to be reached. This work aims to contribute in this sense with a feasibility study of a system with ocean wave power plants and with socio-current power plants to be operated on the southern coast of Brazil. This study evaluates a hybrid system with contributions from energy supplies obtained from wave plants and current plants, connected to the grid and supplying the demand of the municipalities in the North Coast region of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil. The study was carried out with simulations with the Homer Legacy software, with some adaptations for the simulation of ocean wave plants and ocean current plants. The results indicate that the ocean wave power plants were viable in the vast majority of simulated scenarios, while the ocean current power plants were viable in the scenarios with more intense average ocean current speeds and with more expensive energy acquired from the interconnected system.
Highlights
Among the different alternatives for obtaining energy supplies from renewable resources, some have reached a stage of technical and economic maturity, while other alternatives experience different stages of development
This work aims to contribute in this sense with a feasibility study of a system with ocean wave power plants and with socio-current power plants to be operated on the southern coast of Brazil
The results indicate that the ocean wave power plants were viable in the vast majority of simulated scenarios, while the ocean current power plants were viable in the scenarios with more intense average ocean current speeds and with more expensive energy acquired from the interconnected system
Summary
Among the different alternatives for obtaining energy supplies from renewable resources, some have reached a stage of technical and economic maturity, while other alternatives experience different stages of development. Renewable resources have characteristics of intermittency and variability that make it very difficult to use them in interconnected systems of continental extensions, as is the case of the Brazilian energy system. Their use requires joint operation with energy storage devices, in addition to appropriate government policies. Ocean waves and currents have characteristics of relative predictability that differentiate them from other renewable resources. This better predictability can guarantee priority investments in the development of alternative energy sources [2]
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