Publications

Bento, A.R., Rusu, E., Martinho, P. and Guedes Soares, C. (2014), “Assessment of the changes induced by a wave farm in the nearshore wave conditions”, Computers & Geosciences, N. 17, pp. 50-61

Starting from the observation that the exploiting the ocean energy will normally de done by farms of several identical devices the present work has as objective to assess the local and coastal impact of a large wave farm that would operate in the Portuguese coastal environment. The target area is the Portuguese pilot zone at São Pedro de Moel, which is located in the central part of the Portuguese continental nearshore. A generic wave farm is considered and various transmission situations were analyzed. The study starts with the situation without wave farm (zero absorption) and subsequently different scenarios are considered by increasing gradually the conditions to the theoretical case of the total absorption. For each case study, model simulations are performed covering one entire year using a wave prediction system based on WW3, for the wave generation at the level of the entire North Atlantic Ocean, and on SWAN, for the coastal wave transformation. In this way, a comprehensive picture of the possible impact of the wave farm is provided. The results show that the presence of a wave farm operating offshore has a noticeable influence on the wave conditions immediately down wave. Although this influence is usually attenuated at the level of the coastline, it appears as obvious a general decrease of significant wave height due to the wave farm, but also some other wave parameters are modified.

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