Identifying the Optimal Offshore Areas for Wave Energy Converter Deployments in Taiwanese Waters Based on 12-Year Model Hindcasts

Hung-Ju Shih,Wei-Bo Chen,Lee-Yaw Lin,Chih-Hsin Chang

doi:10.3390/en11030499

Hung-Ju Shih, Wei-Bo Chen + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/en11030499

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Abstract

A 12-year sea-state hindcast for Taiwanese waters, covering the period from 2005 to 2016, was conducted using a fully coupled tide-surge-wave model. The hindcasts of significant wave height and peak period were employed to estimate the wave power resources in the waters surrounding Taiwan. Numerical simulations based on unstructured grids were converted to structured grids with a resolution of 25 × 25 km. The spatial distribution maps of offshore annual mean wave power were created for each year and for the 12-year period. Waters with higher wave power density were observed off the northern, northeastern, southeastern (south of Green Island and southeast of Lanyu) and southern coasts of Taiwan. Five energetic sea areas with spatial average annual total wave energy density of 60–90 MWh/m were selected for further analysis. The 25 × 25 km square grids were then downscaled to resolutions of 5 × 5 km, and five 5 × 5 km optimal areas were identified for wave energy converter deployments. The spatial average annual total wave energy yields at the five optimal areas (S1)–(S5) were estimated to be 64.3, 84.1, 84.5, 111.0 and 99.3 MWh/m, respectively. The prevailing wave directions for these five areas lie between east and northeast.

Highlights

Oceans cover over 70% of the Earth’s surface and represent a wealth of renewable energy resources [1]
Numerical simulations based on unstructured grids
A tide-surge-wave fully coupled model based on an unstructured grid system, scale Hydroscience Integrated System Model (SCHISM)-WWM-III, was implemented to simulate the sea states in the waters surrounding Taiwan

Summary

Introduction

Oceans cover over 70% of the Earth’s surface and represent a wealth of renewable energy resources [1]. The raft-type WEC uses relative rotation around a hinge to drive an electrical generation system to convert wave energy to electricity [5]. Another approach involves a point-oscillating absorber type WEC, which utilizes relative translational motion in which the oscillating motion of the floater is converted into electricity by a power take off (PTO) system for the oscillating-body WEC. This type of WEC is widely used for offshore deployments [6].

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