Wave Energy Assessment Along the Moroccan Atlantic Coast

Abstract

The aim of the present work is to assess the offshore wave energy potential along the Atlantic coast of Morocco. Research works of this paper focus on the identification of the most energetic sites for wave energy converters (WECs) deployment. For this purpose, 11 sites have been explored; all of them are located at more than 40m depth on the Moroccan Atlantic coast. The wave power at each site is computed on the basis of wave data records in terms of significant wave height and energy period provided by the Wave Watch three (WW3) model. Results indicate that the coast sites located between latitudes 30° 30′ N and 33° N are the most energetic with an annual average wave power estimated at about 30 kW• m−1, whereas, in the other sites, the wave power is significantly lower. Moreover, the study of the monthly and seasonal temporal variability is found to be uniform in the powerful sites with values four times greater in winter than in summer. The directional investigation on the significant wave height has shown that for almost all the powerful sites, the incoming waves have a dominant sector ranging between Northern (N) and Western-Northern-Western (WNW) directions.