Analysis of Wave Energy Sources in the North Atlantic Waters in View of Design Challenges

Author(s):  
Jose V. Taboada ◽  
Hirpa G. Lemu

This paper describes a wave energy analysis of North Atlantic waters and provides an overview of the available resources. The analysis was conducted using a scatter diagram data combined with wave statistics and empirical parameters given by wave height and periods. Such an overview is instrumental for modelling of wave energy sources, design of wave energy converter (WEC) devices and determination of locations of the devices. Previous survey of wave energy resources widely focused on determination of the reliability on installations of WECs. Though the renewable energy source that can be utilized from the waves is huge, the innovative work in design and development of WECs is insignificant and the available technologies still require further optimization. Furthermore, the wave potential of North Atlantic waters is not sufficiently studied and documented. Closer review of the literature also shows that wave energy conversion technology, compared with other conversion machines of renewable energy sources such as wind energy and solar energy, seems still immature and most of the research and development efforts in this direction are limited in scope. The design of energy converters is also highly dictated by the wave energy resource intensity distribution, which varies from North to South hemisphere. The immaturity of the technology can be attributed to several factors. Since there are a number of uncertainties on the accuracy of wave data, the design, location and installation of WECs face a number of challenges in terms of their service life, structural performance and topological configuration. As a result, collection and assessment of wave characteristics and the wave state conditions data serve as key inputs for development of robust, reliable, operable and affordable wave energy converters. The fact that a number of variables are involved in wave distribution characteristics and the extraction of wave power, treating these variables in the design process imposes immense challenges for the design optimization and hence the optimum energy conversion. The conversion machines are expected to extract as high wave energy as possible while their structural performance is ensured. The study reported in this paper is to analyse wave data over several years of return periods with a detailed validation for wave statistics and wave power. The analysis is intended to contribute in better understanding of the wave characteristics with influencing parameters that can serve as design optimization parameters. A method is proposed to conduct a survey and analysis of the available wave energy resources and the potential at cited locations. The paper concludes that wave energy data accuracy is the baseline for project scoping, coastal and offshore design, and environmental impact assessments.

Processes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (10) ◽  
pp. 650
Author(s):  
Chia-Nan Wang ◽  
Nguyen Thanh ◽  
Chih-Chiang Su

With about a 7% average annual economic growth rate in Vietnam, the demand for electricity production is increasing, and, with more than 3000 km of coastline, the country has great potential for developing wave energy sources to meet such electricity production. This energy source, also known as renewable energy, comes from tides, wind, heat differences, flows, and waves. Both wind and wave energy are considered to have the most potential for energy sources in Vietnam. Just as hydropower projects are controversial due to depleting water resources and regulating floods, nuclear power projects cause safety concerns. To overcome this problem, Vietnamese scientists are considering using abundant wave energy resources for electricity. Nowadays, the ocean energy sector offers many new technologies to help minimize carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) in the living environment. Further, many countries already have wave power plants. In this research, an integrated model, combining the fuzzy analytical network process (FANP) and the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS), is proposed for wave energy plant location selection. As a result, Con Co (SITE3) is determined the best site for wave energy production. The primary aim of this study is to provide insight into site selection problems for renewable energy investments of Vietnam. The contribution of this research is to propose a fuzzy multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) model for site selection in the renewable energy sector. The proposed model also can address different complex problems in location selection; it is also a flexible design model for considering the evaluation criteria; further, it is applicable to site selection of other renewable energies in the world.


Author(s):  
Lin Li ◽  
Zhen Gao ◽  
Torgeir Moan

The costs for an offshore wind farm, especially with bottom fixed foundations increase significantly with increasing water depth. If costs can be reduced to a competitive level, the potential for wind farms in deep water is huge. One way of reducing costs might be to combine offshore wind with wave energy facilities at sites where these resources are concentrated. In order to design combined renewable energy concepts, it is important to choose sites where both wind and wave energy resources are substantial. Such facilities might be designed in ultimate limit states based on load effects corresponding to 50-year wind and wave conditions. This requires a long-term joint probabilistic model for the wind and wave parameters at potential sites. In this paper, five European offshore sites are selected for analysis and comparison of combined renewable energy concepts developed in the EU FP7 project – MARINA Platform. The five sites cover both shallow water (<100m) and deep water (> 200m), with three sites facing the Atlantic Ocean and the other two sites in the North Sea. The selection of the sites is carried out by considering average wind and wave energy resources, as well as extreme environmental conditions which indicate the cost of the system. Long-term joint distributions of mean wind speed at 10-meter height (Uw), significant wave height (Hs) and spectral peak period (Tp) are presented for selected sites. Simultaneous hourly wind and wave hindcast data from 2001–2010 are used as a database, which are obtained from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. The joint distributions are estimated by fitting analytical distributions to the hindcast data following a procedure suggested by Johannessen et al. (2001). The long-term joint distributions can be used to estimate the wind and wave power output from each combined concept, and to estimate the fatigue lifetime of the structure. For estimation of the wind and wave power separately, the marginal distributions of wind and wave are also provided. Based on the joint distributions, contour surfaces are established for combined wind and wave parameters for which the probability of exceedance corresponds to a return period of 50 years. The design points on the 50-year contour surfaces are suggested for extreme response analysis of combined concepts. The analytical long-term distributions established could also be applied for design analysis of other offshore structures with similar environmental considerations of these sites.


2014 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Wilbert ◽  
V. Sundar ◽  
S. A. Sannasiraj

The reduction of the greenhouse gas emission generated through the usage of fossil fuel has become quite vital forcing us to look for alternative renewable energy sources. Among the renewable energy sources, ocean wave energy looks promising leading to worldwide involvement of researchers in the refinements of a number of the concepts. The conversion of energy available in ocean waves requires an interface device to interact with the kinetic and kinematic phenomena under the waves. These devices are known as wave energy converters (WECS). Among the available WECS oscillating water column (OWC) stands out as one of most promising concept. Though the OWC concept has emerged from laboratory model type to prototype plant, the high cost of production makes it less attractive in commercialism. This necessitates further refinement in the configuration of OWC concept to make it more attractive leading to economically competent. This can be achieved either by improving the efficiency or by integrating it with coastal protective breakwaters, viz., offshore detached breakwaters. The double chamber oscillating water is an innovative concept which can bring forth both efficiency and additional stability once it becomes an integral part of coastal breakwater. This system captures the high magnitude of dynamic pressure as the excitation force for the oscillation inside the OWC. The trajectory of flow pattern can provide additional vertical load which will enhance the stability factor of the breakwater. In this paper the wave power absorption capacity of a 1:20 scale physical model under varying regular wave characteristics is reported. In this insightful study the objective assessment over the hydrodynamic performance reveals the parametric influence over wave power absorption capacity of the device.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Trifonov ◽  
Dmitry Trukhan ◽  
Yury Koshlich ◽  
Valeriy Prasolov ◽  
Beata Ślusarczyk

In this study we aimed to determine the extent to which changes in the share of renewable energy sources, their structural complex, and the level of energy security in Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) countries in the medium- and long-term are interconnected. The study was performed through modeling and determination of the structural characteristics of energy security in the countries. The methodology of the approach to modeling was based on solving the problem of nonlinear optimization by selecting a certain scenario. For the study, the data of EECCA countries were used. The ability of EECCA countries to benefit from long-term indirect and induced advantages of the transformation period depends on the extent to which their domestic supply chains facilitate the deployment of energy transformation and induced economic activity. This study provides an opportunity to assess the degree of influence of renewable energy sources on the level of energy security of countries in the context of energy resource diversification. The high degree of influence of renewable energy sources on energy security in the EECCA countries has been proven in the implementation of the developed scenarios for its increase. Energy security is growing. At the same time, its level depends not only on an increase in the share of renewable sources but also on the structure of energy resources complex of countries, and the development of various renewable energy sources. Therefore, today the EECCA countries are forced not only to increase the share of renewable energy sources but also to attach strategic importance to the structural content of their energy complex.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1569
Author(s):  
Namki Choi ◽  
Byongjun Lee ◽  
Dohyuk Kim ◽  
Suchul Nam

System strength is an important concept in the integration of renewable energy sources (RESs). However, evaluating system strength is becoming more ambiguous due to the interaction of RESs. This paper proposes a novel scheme to define the actual interaction boundaries of RESs using the power flow tracing strategy. Based on the proposed method, the interaction boundaries of RESs were identified at the southwest side of Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) systems. The test results show that the proposed approach always provides the identical interaction boundaries of RESs in KEPCO systems, compared to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) method. The consistent boundaries could be a guideline for power-system planners to assess more accurate system strength, considering the actual interactions of the RESs.


Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (15) ◽  
pp. 1779
Author(s):  
Syed Rahman ◽  
Irfan Khan ◽  
Khaliqur Rahman ◽  
Sattam Al Otaibi ◽  
Hend I. Alkhammash ◽  
...  

This paper presents a novel, scalable, and modular multiport power electronic topology for the integration of multiple resources. This converter is not only scalable in terms of the integration of multiple renewable energy resources (RES) and storage devices (SDs) but is also scalable in terms of output ports. Multiple dc outputs of a converter are designed to serve as input to the stacking modules (SMs) of the modular multilevel converter (MMC). The proposed multiport converter is bidirectional in nature and superior in terms of functionality in a way that a modular universal converter is responsible for the integration of multiple RES/SDs and regulates multiple dc output ports for SMs of MMC. All input ports can be easily integrated (and controlled), and output ports also can be controlled independently in response to any load variations. An isolated active half-bridge converter with multiple secondaries acts as a central hub for power processing with multiple renewable energy resources that are integrated at the primary side. To verify the proposed converter, a detailed design of the converter-based system is presented along with the proposed control algorithm for managing power on the individual component level. Additionally, different modes of power management (emulating the availability/variability of renewable energy sources (RES)) are exhibited and analyzed here. Finally, detailed simulation results are presented in detail for the validation of the proposed concepts and design process.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-45
Author(s):  
Angel Terziev ◽  
Ivan Antonov ◽  
Rositsa Velichkova

Abstract Increasing the share of renewable energy sources is one of the core policies of the European Union. This is because of the fact that this energy is essential in reducing the greenhouse gas emissions and securing energy supplies. Currently, the share of wind energy from all renewable energy sources is relatively low. The choice of location for a certain wind farm installation strongly depends on the wind potential. Therefore the accurate assessment of wind potential is extremely important. In the present paper an analysis is made on the impact of significant possible parameters on the determination of wind energy potential for relatively large areas. In the analysis the type of measurements (short- and long-term on-site measurements), the type of instrumentation and the terrain roughness factor are considered. The study on the impact of turbulence on the wind flow distribution over complex terrain is presented, and it is based on the real on-site data collected by the meteorological tall towers installed in the northern part of Bulgaria. By means of CFD based software a wind map is developed for relatively large areas. Different turbulent models in numerical calculations were tested and recommendations for the usage of the specific models in flows modeling over complex terrains are presented. The role of each parameter in wind map development is made. Different approaches for determination of wind energy potential based on the preliminary developed wind map are presented.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-38
Author(s):  
Vasyl Zhelykh ◽  
Peter Kapalo ◽  
Stepan Shapoval ◽  
Iryna Venhryn ◽  
Khrystyna Kozak

AbstractOne of the most promising energy sources is solar energy, which is confirmed by the growth in the development of renewable energy for European countries. The main goal of research is to design and implement the latest energy systems for passive buildings using renewable energy. In this paper is documented the optimal operation stages of the solar heat supply system were investigated with recommendations for further development of the design and construction of passive buildings in Ukraine South.


2021 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 14-21
Author(s):  
Vladimir P. Polevanov ◽  

The growth in primary energy consumption in 2019 by 1.3% was provided by renewable energy sources and natural gas, which together provided 75% of the increase. China in the period 2010–2020 held a leading position in the growth of demand for energy resources, but according to forecasts, India will join it in the current decade.


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