The impact of wave energy farms in the shoreline wave climate: Portuguese pilot zone case study using Pelamis energy wave devices

Artur Palha*, Lourenço Mendes, Conceição Juana Fortes, Ana Brito-Melo, António Sarmento

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

109 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper describes the study of the impact of energy absorption by wave farms on the nearshore wave climate and, in special, the influence of the incident wave conditions and the number and position of the wave farms, on the nearshore wave characteristics is studied and discussed. The study was applied to the maritime zone at the West coast off Portugal, namely in front of São Pedro de Moel, where it is foreseen the deployment of offshore wave energy prototypes and farms between the 30 m and 90 m bathymetric lines, with an area of 320 Km2. In this study the REFDIF model was adapted in order to model the energy extraction by wave farms. Three different sinusoidal incident wave conditions were considered. Five different wave farm configurations, varying the position of the wave farm, its number and the width of the navigation channels at each wave farm were analysed. The results for each configuration in terms of the change of the wave characteristics (wave height and wave direction) at the nearshore are presented, compared and discussed for three representative wave conditions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)62-77
Number of pages16
JournalRenewable Energy
Volume35
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Environmental impact
  • Numerical modeling waver farm
  • Pelamis
  • Portuguese Pilot Zone
  • Wave climate
  • Wave energy extraction

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