Availability and Accessibility for Offshore Operations in the Mediterranean Sea
Publication: Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 144, Issue 6
Abstract
The study uses a 35-year data set, which can be used to provide a long-term assessment for assessing wave power resources, availability for wave energy converters (WECs), and multithreshold accessibility suitable for numerous vessels and important for offshore maintenance operations. The data set demonstrates that winter months have harsher environmental conditions for the Western regions, such as the Spanish coastlines, and the Eastern regions, such as the Aegean Sea, record slightly higher waves during summer months. The data set also identifies the seasons with lower resources, which will have higher accessibility and will benefit offshore construction and maintenance operations for offshore energy activities. It has been shown that the availability for wave energy depends on the operational range of a particular type of WEC; hence, threshold selection affects the availability distribution more than accessibility. Availability varies per region, with Southern Aegean, Southern Italian, and North African coasts having higher monthly values. Accessibility in nearshore areas is constantly over 90%, with deeper waters presenting reduced levels. Statistical analysis performed for this work shows predictable availability due to lower maxima, potentially enhancing WECs operation; this, however, will depend on device properties. Furthermore, the resource analysis indicates that the dominant metocean conditions yield low wave height range.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the reviewers for their valuable comments, which improved the manuscript.
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Published In
Journal of Waterway, Port, Coastal, and Ocean Engineering
Volume 144 • Issue 6 • November 2018
Copyright
© 2018 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 3, 2017
Accepted: Mar 9, 2018
Published online: Jul 20, 2018
Published in print: Nov 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Dec 20, 2018
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