Wave energy assessment in the China East Adjacent Seas based on a 25-year wave-current interaction numerical simulation

Abstract

This study evaluates the wave energy in the China East Adjacent Seas based on a 25-year high temporal and spatial resolution wave-current interaction wave hindcast dataset from 1996 to 2020. The spatial distribution characteristics of the multi-year and monthly average wave energy flux in the China East Adjacent Seas are analyzed. The temporal variability characteristics of wave energy flux are quantified and analyzed by using a coefficient of variation, a seasonal variability index and a monthly variability index. The exploitable wave energy flux was assessed by excluding the waves with energy flux less than 2 kW/m and setting different significant wave height upper thresholds. Then, after considering factors such as wave energy resource abundance, temporal variability, offshore distance and water depth, 12 hotspots in the China East Adjacent Seas are believed relatively suitable for wave energy development. Four types of wave energy converters with different power capacities are selected to analyze their performance in different hotspots to provide a basis for design and selection of wave energy converters suitable to the China East Adjacent Seas. Due to the higher conversion efficiency when the significant wave height is small, Oyster performs best among the four selected wave energy converters.