Theoretical resource assessment of marine current energy in the Agulhas Current along South Africa's East coast

Abstract

There is a new focus on clean power generation from renewable sources both globally and in South Africa. Many possibilities are being assessed, and one option being power generation from marine currents. Marine currents are sustainable, stable source of energy that is ideal for base load power generation. New current flow velocity and direction data have made this resource assessment possible. This paper presents a resource assessment study of the marine current energy available in the top 200m of the Agulhas Current, flowing Southwards down South Africa's East coast. A number of sites on South Africa's East coast were assessed for their viability as energy extraction locations for the Agulhas Current. Detailed investigations into this data reveal that there are a number of possible sites for energy extraction, and that the energy extracted could add significantly to South Africa's power generation capacity, a critical result given that South Africa is in the thores of a power crisis. Importantly, energy extraction of this type from a renewable resource would more than double of South Africa's power generation from renewable resources.