Influence of wave resource assessment methodology on wave energy production estimates

摘要

Renewable energy resource inventories show that ocean waves are one of the most energy dense untapped resources in the world, and present an opportunity to generate significant quantities of electricity. To accurately assess the levels of usable energy over long periods, a parametric representation of the raw wave resource is required. This study investigates the variability across four wave energy assessment methods, and two input data sources, to quantify the uncertainties in WEC power production assessments. Two conventional methods were tested: a time-series method and a standard spectral method with a generic spectral shape. Two higher fidelity techniques were additionally studied; an aggregate spectral and a partitioned spectral method.