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Abstract:The Maldives are situated in the remote equatorial Indian Ocean, covering 900 km from north to south. The 26 coral atolls forming the archipelago are composed of sand and coral with a maximum height of about 2.30 m above the mean sea level. Periodic flooding from storm surges and the frequent freshwater scarcity are perceived by the population and the economic operators as the major environmental stresses. Moreover, the strong dependence on imported fossil fuels increases, even more, the environmental concerns. Diesel, in fact, still represents the main source of power generation, typically through privately managed small diesel sets. The real challenge for this area is to promote the environmental quality with socioeconomic growth. The present study aims to evaluate the strategic effectiveness to face these issues by wave and offshore wind energy. Resources using a 10-year hindcast dataset are here examined. The annual offshore wave power was found to range between 8.46 kW/m and 12.75 kW/m, while the 10 m and 100 m mean wind power density is respectively 0.08 kW/m 2 and 0.16 kW/m 2 . Based on these results, an environmentally and socio-economically sustainable best-case scenario is constructed and two atoll islands (Malè and Magoodhoo) are specifically investigated. As a result, multifunctional structures and multi-use systems, which combine power generation, desalinization and coastal defence, are strongly recommended.

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The Overtopping BReakwater for Energy Conversion (OBREC) is a new typology of overtopping wave energy converter (OTD) integrated into a traditional rubble mound breakwater. The device can be considered as an innovative non-conventional breakwater that has the same functions as the traditional structures with the addedvalued of the energy production. The paper presents a comprehensive overview of the OBREC, offering a synthesis of the complete design process, from the results of the two complementary test campaigns in small scale carried out in 2012 and 2014 at Aalborg University, to the description of the full-scale device installed in Naples in 2016. The device represents the first OTD device in full-scale integrated into an existing rubble mound breakwater and it has been equipped by an instrumental apparatus to measure its response to the wave interaction. The monitoring of the full-scale device in the port of Naples, particularly during storm conditions, is aimed to study the scaling effects in wave loading and the overall performance of this breakwater-integrated OTD, included performance in terms of the energy production.

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.