Blue Growth Development in the Mediterranean Sea: Quantifying the Benefits of an Integrated Wave Energy Converter at Genoa Harbour

Abstract

Coastal resilience is often achieved by traditional civil engineering projects, such as dikes and breakwaters. However, given the pressing nature of Climate Change, integrating energy converters in “classical” structures can enhance innovation, and help in pursuing decarbonisation targets. In this work, we present an alternative for integrating a wave energy converter at a vertical wall breakwater, following past successful projects. Our approach is based on a high spatio-temporal wave dataset to properly quantify expected energy production, but also focus on the hours for which other time-dependent renewables cannot produce, i.e., solar. Our analysis evaluates the power performance and assesses the economic parameters and viability of the proposed installation. Our integrated solution shares the main capital with the breakwater and can produce from 390 MWh–2300 MWh/year, displacing more than 1760 Tn of CO2 annually. In addition to power generated, we estimated the payback period for most cases being approximately 10–15 years, but when accounting avoided oil CO2 emissions, the installation is highly attractive with payback in less than 9 years, with favourable financing indicating 3.4 years.

Wave Energy in the Mediterranean Sea: Resource Assessment, Deployed WECs and Prospects

“…Moreover, using wave data from the wave climate of Mazara del Vallo (Sicily) and Alghero (Sardinia), the device was installed. Lavidas et al [73] examined the exploitation of wave energy by OWC in the port of Genova, Italy. They evaluated the possibility of installing an OWC in the port, estimating the payback period, the levelized cost of electricity (LCoE), the technical and economic capabilities, as well as the pollution that would be avoided due to the decreased consumption of fossil fuels.…”

“…Hence, up to date, innovative concepts have been designed in such a way that WECs can easily be integrated into the breakwaters of ports, providing both energy and safety [92]. Moreover, there is a growing body of literature that revealed the advances of these integrations [90][91][92] and focused on the assessment of WECs in the breakwaters of ports [73,82]. In the case of islands, energy safety is a vital issue, and renewable extraction has growing importance [93].…”

Assessing Renewable Resources at the Saronikos Gulf for the Development of Multi-Generation Renewable Systems

“…For the latter, ports comprise several power-intensive operations that will need to be decarbonised without jeopardising operation capacity [14]. Several solutions have been highlighted for ports based on existing wind (onshore/offshore) and solar photovoltaics [15], and novel solutions are emerging such as integrated wave energy at ports and breakwaters [16][17][18]. Such diverse generation systems have benefits in overlapping power production, hence reducing intermittency [19], but they can also reduce CO 2 and be economically viable in under 10 years, as it was shown to be the case in the Aeolian Islands [20].…”

Marine Renewable Energy: An Important Direction in Taking the Green Road towards a Low Carbon Future

“…However, it can be noticed that in some particular areas a significant enhancement of the wave power variability is expected, especially in the case of RCP8.5. For the same Mediterranean coastal areas, in [7] a study based on some previous projects concerning the development of a wave energy converter, integrated as a vertical wall breakwater, is presented. The work assesses the power performance and the economic parameters of the installation considered.…”