Spatial and temporal variations of wave energy in the nearshore waters of the central west coast of India

摘要

Assessment of wave power potential at different water depths andtime is required for identifying a wave power plant location. This studyexamines the variation in wave power off the central west coast of India atwater depths of 30, 9 and 5 m based on waverider buoy measured wave data.The study shows a significant reduction ( ∼  10 to 27 %) in wavepower at 9 m water depth compared to 30 m and the wave power available at5 m water depth is 20 to 23 % less than that at 9 m. At 9 m depth, theseasonal mean value of the wave power varied from 1.6 kW m in thepost-monsoon period (ONDJ) to 15.2 kW m in the Indian summer monsoon(JJAS) period. During the Indian summer monsoon period, the variation of wavepower in a day is up to 32 kW m. At 9 m water depth, the meanannual wave power is 6 kW m and interannual variations up to19.3 % are observed during 2009–2014. High wave energy(   20 kW m) at the study area is essentially from the directionalsector 245–270° and also 75 % of the total annual wave energy isfrom this narrow directional sector, which is advantageous while aligning thewave energy converter.