An overview of the Brazilian continental shelf wave energy potential
Ricardo Cardoso Guimarães1; Phelype Haron Oleinik1; Eduardo De Paula Kirinus1; Wiliam Correa Marques1; Bruno Vasconcellos Lopes1
1 Universidade Federal do Rio Grande
doi:10.20906/CPS/CILAMCE2017-0701
Resumo
Wave energy studies have received high attention in the last few years due the in- crease of exploration in alternative energies, and the need of renewable sources. However a characterization of this resource is of extreme importance due its wide range temporal vari- ability. Parallel to the development of studies on renewable sources of energy, there is an increase on understanding of Wave Energy Converters (WEC's) that has brought with it other analysis of extreme importance to the development of this technology. The viability for the implementation of wave energy farms highly depends on the wave energy power of the area. In this way, this study explores the evaluation and characterization of coastal Brazilian wave power assessment. Numerical simulations were carried out in order to determinate amongst other factors, Significant Wave Height (Hs) and Wave Power (Pw), of the studied region. A two-dimension spectral model (TOMAWAC - TELEMAC-based Operational Model Addressing Wave Action Computation) was used to conduct the simulations, which was calibrated and validated using measurement buoys along the Brazilian Coast. The superficial boundary was forced using wind data, while the oceanic boundaries was forced by, Hs, Peak Period (Tp) and Peak Direction (Dp) data, provided from the Era-Interim project conducted by ECMWF (https://www.ecmwf.int/en/research/climate-reanalysis/era-interim). A 5 year wave hindcast was developed, and the annual means, were analyzed in different locations over all the Brazil- ian continental shelf, aiming to explore the potential implementation of WEC farms. For some near shore areas, the wave power annual mean reached values of 15 kW.m-1, while offshore values reaches from 18 to 20 kW.m-1 being most frequent for the South-Southeastern Brazilian Shelf (SSBS). A great variability of the wave power was also verified when comparing the SSBS and the NNBS (North-Northeastern Brazilian Shelf), which demonstrate that the wave power tends to be higher at high latitudes. The results of this stud
Palavras-chave: Wave; Energy; TOMAWAC; WEC