A Detailed Assessment of the Wave Energy Resource at the Atlantic Marine Energy Test Site

Reduan Atan, Jamie Goggins and Stephen Nash
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Reduan Atan: College of Engineering and Informatics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
Jamie Goggins: College of Engineering and Informatics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland
Stephen Nash: College of Engineering and Informatics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

Energies, 2016, vol. 9, issue 11, 1-29

Abstract: Wave characteristic assessments of wave energy test sites provide a greater understanding of prevailing wave conditions and are therefore extremely important to both wave energy test site operators and clients as they can inform wave energy converter design, optimisation, deployment, operation and maintenance. This research presents an assessment of the wave resource at the Atlantic Marine Energy Test Site (AMETS) on the west coast of Ireland based on 12-years of modelled data from January 2004 to December 2015. The primary aim is to provide an assessment of annual and seasonal wave characteristics and resource variability at the two deployment berths which comprise the site. A nested model has been developed using Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN) to replicate wave propagations from regional to local scale with a 0.05° resolution model covering the northeast Atlantic and a 0.0027° resolution model covering AMETS. The coarse and fine models have been extensively validated against available measured data within Irish waters. 12-year model outputs from the high resolution model were analysed to determine mean and maximum conditions and operational, high and extreme event conditions for significant wave height, energy period and power. Annual and seasonal analyses are presented. The 12-year annual mean P were 68 kW/m at Berth A (BA) and 57 kW/m at Berth B (BB). The resource shows strong seasonal and annual variations and the winter mean power levels were found to be strongly correlated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).

Keywords: Atlantic Marine Energy Test Site (AMETS); Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN); wave characterisation; operational waves; extreme waves; wave energy resource; wave power; wave resource variability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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