Tidal Energy Flows between the Midriff Islands in the Gulf of California

Federico Angel Velazquez-Muñoz,Anatoliy Filonov

doi:10.3390/en14030621

Abstract

The Gulf of California has many regions of potential tidal-stream energy that have been identified and characterized using in-situ measurements and numerical ocean models. The Midriff Islands region has received particular attention due to its increased current speeds and high kinetic energy. This increase in energy can be seen in the formation of internal wave packets propagating for several hundred kilometers. Here we present a brief description of internal wave measurements travel towards the Northern Gulf and explore energy generation sites. In this paper we characterize the tidal inflow and outflow that passes throughout the Midriff Islands in the central part of the Gulf. We use a three-dimensional numerical ocean model that adequately reproduces the tidal flow and the increase in speed and kinetic energy between the islands. The current flow structure shows the highest velocity cores near the shore and far from the bottom. During the rising tide, the maximum current flow (~0.6 ms−1) was found between Turón Island and San Lorenzo Island, from the surface to 200 m depth. When the currents flowed out of the Gulf, during the falling tide, the maximum negative current (−0.8 ms−1) was found between Tiburon Island and Turón Island, from near the surface to 80 m depth. Although there are favorable conditions for power generation potential by tidal flows, the vertical variability of the current must be considered for field development and equipment installation sites.

Highlights

Tidal energy is unevenly distributed in the different oceans
Our model implementation can reproduce the principal characteristics of internal wave patterns, shown in Figure 3, using the along-gulf velocity component, that it is produced by the internal hydraulic jump in the San Esteban and San
The reduced width and depth of the section through which the current flows produce a significant increase in speed, with a significant increase in kinetic energy, as shown in Figure 4, where the black arrows show the vertically-integrated velocity and the color tones correspond to the kinetic energy in units of J m−3

Summary

Introduction

Tidal energy is unevenly distributed in the different oceans. It tends to be concentrated near underwater sills and in narrow areas between islands. In these regions, strong tidal currents arise, which transform part of the energy of the barotropic tidal flow into its potential form, generating internal (baroclinic) tidal waves. Strong tidal currents arise, which transform part of the energy of the barotropic tidal flow into its potential form, generating internal (baroclinic) tidal waves These flows, together with the barotropic flow, create a complex picture of dynamics in certain regions of the ocean. The ratio of the energy of the baroclinic tide to that of the barotropic tide can be calculated from the following expression: distributed under the terms and

Methods

Results

Conclusion