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Sustainability of Wave Energy Resources in the Sea

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Oceans".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2023) | Viewed by 9668

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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Adem Akpinar

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil Engineering, Gorukle Campus, Bursa Uludag University, Bursa, Turkey
Interests: offshore renewable energies; wave energy; wave energy assessment; wave energy converters; offshore wind energy; sea waves; coastal engineering; wave modelling; wave climate; climate change

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As a result of, and in view of the continuous development of wave energy converters in recent years, wave energy presented as a condensed form of wind energy can constitute an essential source of renewable energy, which can be exploited in high-consumption areas. Therefore, the assessment of wave energy propagation is a very important task not only for its exploitation as a power resource but also for its destructive effects in coastal zones.

This Special Issue covers but is not limited to the following topics and intends to provide a detailed picture of both the state of the art and the outlook of wave energy.

The latest developments in wave energy potential, assessment, and extraction;
Storm events for its destructive effects in the coastal zones;
Geo-spatial multi-criteria evaluation of wave energy exploitation;
Wave power performance of wave energy converters;
Optimum performance of wave energy converters;
Inter- and intra-annual variability of wave energy resource assessment;
Wave energy trends;
Climate change impacts on wave energy.

Prof. Dr. Adem Akpinar
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

wave energy
coastal zones
wave energy exploitation

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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22 pages, 17520 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Feasibility of Wave Energy Harvesting in the Ligurian Sea, Italy

by Manuel Corrales-Gonzalez, George Lavidas and Giovanni Besio

Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 9113; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15119113 - 5 Jun 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1436

Abstract

Clean energies are being incorporated into the energy mix in numerous countries. Through a spatial survey of maritime trade, restricted military maritime areas, marine planning, and the presence of fauna and flora along the Ligurian Sea, locations for possible investments in wave energy harvesting were identified in the Northern Thyrrenian Sea, along the Ligurian coast. Previous studies in this region have demonstrated, at a lower spatial resolution, the wave energy potential that can be captured and its variation over time. However, the optimization of wave energy exploitation under the criteria of the functionality and safety of converter devices has not yet been evaluated in the Ligurian Sea. The purpose of this study is to identify the optimal wave energy converter from an economic and technical perspective at several selected locations in the Ligurian Sea. This study involves the scaling of the employed power matrices to obtain the optimized capacity factors of wave energy converters. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Wave Energy Resources in the Sea)

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18 pages, 9746 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Wave Power Trends over the Mediterranean Sea Based on Innovative Methods and 60-Year ERA5 Reanalysis

by Emine Acar, Adem Akpınar, Murat Kankal and Khalid Amarouche

Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 8590; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118590 - 25 May 2023

Viewed by 1320

Abstract

The present study aims to evaluate long-term wave power (P_wave) trends over the Mediterranean Sea using innovative and classical trend analysis techniques, considering the annual and seasonal means. For this purpose, the data were selected for the ERA5 reanalysis with 0.5° × 0.5° spatial resolution and 1 h temporal resolution during 60 years between 1962 and 2021. Spatial assessment of the annual and seasonal trends was first performed using the innovative trend analysis (ITA) and Mann–Kendall (MK) test. To obtain more detailed information, innovative polygon trend analysis (IPTA), improved visualization of innovative trend analysis (IV-ITA), and star graph methods were applied to annual, seasonal, and monthly mean P_wave at 12 stations selected. The results allow us to identify an increasing trend above the 10% change rate with the innovative method and above the 95% confidence level with the Mann–Kendall test in mean wave power in the Levantine basin and the Libyan Sea at all timescales. The use of various innovative methods offered similar results in certain respects and complemented each other. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Wave Energy Resources in the Sea)

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18 pages, 6171 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Partitioning the Extreme Wave Spectrum of Hurricane Wilma to Improve the Design of Wave Energy Converters

by Marco Ulloa, Rodolfo Silva and Ismael Mariño-Tapia

Sustainability 2023, 15(9), 7414; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097414 - 29 Apr 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1455

Abstract

Analysis of the omnidirectional energy spectrum from storm wave measurements provides valuable parameters for understanding the specific local conditions that wave energy converters would have to withstand. Partitioning the energy spectrum also helps to identify wave groups with low directional spread propagating in the direction of the dominant waves of the more energetic wave systems. This paper analyzes the partition of the Hurricane Wilma energy spectrum using single-point measurements obtained in shallow water. Hurricane Wilma generated simultaneous crossing wave systems with different significant wave heights and steepnesses. The maximum estimated significant height among the wave groups was 5.5 m. The corresponding height of the partitions and the omnidirectional energy spectrum were 11.0 m (swell) and 12 m, respectively. While linear superposition was the main mechanism responsible for driving the wave groups, at times, modulational instability produced nonlinear wave groups. This is a new finding, since modulational instability is usually considered an open-sea phenomenon. For shorelines with multidirectional wave groups, submerged and semi-submerged devices should be designed to account for changes in wave direction and wave height, although under extreme hurricane conditions, energy harvesting might have to be sacrificed for the benefit of device integrity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Wave Energy Resources in the Sea)

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16 pages, 3515 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Experimental Study on the Aerodynamic Performance and Wave Energy Capture Efficiency of Square and Curved OWC Wave Energy Conversion Devices

by Xueyan Li, Zhen Yu, Hengliang Qu, Moyao Yang, Hongyuan Shi and Zhenhua Zhang

Sustainability 2023, 15(6), 4963; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15064963 - 10 Mar 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1033

Abstract

To develop novel wave energy conversion devices (WECDs) with excellent performance, the relative wave height and pressure in the chambers of square and curved oscillating water column (OWC) WECDs were compared through physical model tests, and the effects of regular incident wave factors, the opening length, the opening width, and the chamber volume on the aerodynamic performance and wave energy capture efficiency (WECE) of the WECDs were investigated. The results indicated good chamber performance for both the square and curved OWC WECDs. As the incident wave height increased, the wave surface elevation, WECE, and pressure in the chamber all increased, while the relative wave height in the chamber decreased. When the opening length, width, and area of the WECD increased, both the relative wave height and chamber pressure increased. The relative wave height in the chamber increased with decreasing chamber volume; however, the chamber pressure and intrachamber WECE decreased with increasing chamber volume. It is recommended that, in actual engineering applications, the overall efficiency of the device be improved by increasing the opening length, width, area and volume of the air chamber. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Wave Energy Resources in the Sea)

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27 pages, 16852 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Wave Energy in Brittany (France)—Resource Assessment and WEC Performances

by Nicolas Guillou, George Lavidas and Bahareh Kamranzad

Sustainability 2023, 15(2), 1725; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021725 - 16 Jan 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2300

Abstract

Refined numerical wave energy resource assessments are required to reduce uncertainties in the evaluation of available power and energy production. However, to restrict the computational cost, a great part of wave hindcast simulations cover a limited time range (below ten years) or rely on coarse spatial resolutions while routinely ignoring tide-induced modulations in wave conditions. Complementing resource assessments conducted in the North-West European shelf seas, we here exploited a 27-year hindcast database (1994–2020) set up at a spatial resolution of 200 m along the coast of France and integrating the effects of tidal currents on waves. This evaluation was conducted in three water depths from offshore to nearshore (60, 40 and 20 m) around Brittany, one of the most energetic regions along the coast of France. We investigated the performances of a series of thirteen state-of-the-art wave energy converters with respect to installation depth range. Beyond confirming the interest of western Brittany in energy exploitation, the results exhibited the first ranking between devices, thus promoting the interests of Oceantec in offshore waters (60 m), Wave Dragon in intermediate waters (40 m), and Oyster and WaveStar C6 in shallow waters (20 m). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Wave Energy Resources in the Sea)

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Review

Jump to: Research

21 pages, 4806 KiB

Open AccessReview

An Overview and Countermeasure of Global Wave Energy Classification

by Chongwei Zheng

Sustainability 2023, 15(12), 9586; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15129586 - 14 Jun 2023

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1015

Abstract

Wave energy will be an important support to deal with the energy crisis of human society. A scientific energy classification scheme is a prerequisite support for the macro-scale optimized layout, micro-scale accurate site selection and a blueprinting of development routes for wave energy. Based on the indicator considered, this study first divides the global wave energy classification into three stages: preliminary exploration stage, mid-term development stage and relatively mature stage, and then sorts out the main strengths and weaknesses of each stage. It is found that the current classification scheme has six typical bottlenecks such as inconsistency with physical mechanisms, inability to meet the needs of diverse tasks, inapplicability in some seasons/months, etc. To effectively address them, a dynamic adaptive wave energy classification scheme is proposed, which can consider all elements, is suitable for diverse tasks, is available at all times and is applicable to all regions. Based on this, the concepts of absolute and relative classes, a dynamic mapping of wave energy classification, and a future energy classification are proposed, with the expectation of promoting the industrialization and scaling of wave energy. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability of Wave Energy Resources in the Sea)

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