Economic Assessment of Overtopping BReakwater for Energy Conversion (OBREC): A Case Study in Western Australia
Keywords
wave energy resourceWestern Australia
economic optimization
green ports
Environmental effects of industries and plants
TD194-195
Renewable energy sources
TJ807-830
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
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This paper constructs an optimal configuration assessment, in terms of the financial returns, of the Overtopping BReakwater for wave Energy Conversion (OBREC). This technology represents a hybrid wave energy harvester, totally embedded in traditional rubble mound breakwaters. Nine case studies along the southern coast of Western Australia have been analysed. The technique provides tips on how to estimate the quality of the investments, for benchmarking with different turbine strategy layouts and overlapping with the costs of traditional rubble mound breakwaters. Analyses of the offshore and nearshore wave climate have been studied by a high resolution coastal propagation model, forced with wave data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). Inshore wave conditions have been used to quantify the exploitable resources. It has been demonstrated that the optimal investment strategy is nonlinearly dependent on potential electricity production due to outer technical constraints. The work emphasizes the importance of integrating energy production predictions in an economic decision framework for prioritizing adaptation investments.Date
2016-12-01Type
ArticleIdentifier
oai:doaj.org/article:f6bc8703a7d749d1a543e3ce9ffd5f5d2071-1050
10.3390/su9010051
https://doaj.org/article/f6bc8703a7d749d1a543e3ce9ffd5f5d