Ulazia, Alain and Penalba, Markel and Rabanal, Arkaitx and Ibara-Berastegi, Gabiel and Ringwood, John and Sáenz, Jon (2018) Historical Evolution of the Wave Resource and Energy Production off the Chilean Coast over the 20th Century. Energies, 11 (9). p. 2289. ISSN 1996-1073

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Abstract

The wave energy resource in the Chilean coast shows particularly profitable characteristics for wave energy production, with relatively high mean wave power and low inter-annual resource variability. This combination is as interesting as unusual, since high energetic locations are usually also highly variable, such as the west coast of Ireland. Long-term wave resource variations are also an important aspect when designing wave energy converters (WECs), which are often neglected in resource assessment. The present paper studies the long-term resource variability of the Chilean coast, dividing the 20th century into five do-decades and analysing the variations between the different do-decades. To that end, the ERA20C reanalysis of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts is calibrated versus the ERA-Interim reanalysis and validated against buoy measurements collected in different points of the Chilean coast. Historical resource variations off the Chilean coast are compared to resource variations off the west coast in Ireland, showing a significantly more consistent wave resource. In addition, the impact of historical wave resource variations on a realistic WEC, similar to the Corpower device, is studied, comparing the results to those obtained off the west coast of Ireland. The annual power production off the Chilean coast is demonstrated to be remarkably more regular over the 20th century, with variations of just 1% between the different do-decades. View Full-Text

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords:	wave energy trends; reanalysis wave data; Chilean coast; renewable energy; wave energy converters; annual mean power production;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Science and Engineering > Electronic Engineering Faculty of Science and Engineering > Research Institutes > Centre for Ocean Energy Research
Item ID:	12420
Identification Number:	https://doi.org/10.3390/en11092289
Depositing User:	Professor John Ringwood
Date Deposited:	10 Feb 2020 16:21
Journal or Publication Title:	Energies
Publisher:	MDPI
Refereed:	Yes
Funders:	Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), MINECO/ERDF, UE, University of the Basque country
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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