Evaluation of Wave Energy in the Pacific Ocean for Baja California State in Mexico

Abstract

According to the World Energy Council (WEC) the estimated energy of the wave power in the world is in the range of 8,000 to 80,000 TWh/year to depths of 100 meters or higher and actually the utilization of wave energy resource it is possible because it has been implemented in countries like Australia, Indonesia, Nigeria, United Kingdom, Norway, Portugal and Colombia evaluating different types of marine technologies that take the advantage of the kinetic energy in the ocean waves. Mexico according to the National Institute of Statistics and Information (INEGI) has a land area of 1,972,550 km2 of which has a coastline of 11,150 km having potential for the use of their coasts. Baja California with a land area of 71,445 km2 (3.6% of the country) is located on a peninsula in northwest Mexico and has 720 km of coastline on the Pacific Ocean (6.4% nationally) with a range of depths of 25.6 m to 650 m at a distance of the coastline of 15 km, which makes it suitable to evaluate the use of wave energy at local sites. With the completion of this work will contribute to the characterization of the sites that will present the best technical and economic conditions for its implementation, considering the physical characteristics of the site as well as connection points on the transmission lines operated by the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE). For the preparation of this study was carried out in three stages: a) Site Selection, b) Evaluation of Wave Energy and c) Economic evaluation of sites using RETScreen. Based on the characteristics of the coast of Baja California the results obtained are the following: 1) 18 sites were selected with a sea depth averaged of 50 m, the annual density power was 7.5 kW/m, this represents a potential of 210 MW considering an average length of 2 km in each site, 2) The economic evaluation of this type of project was for a period of 30 years in RETScreen, considers an annual inflation rate of 5% and obtains an investment cost of 9,538 US $/kW for this type of generation. We conclude that this source of energy will reduce dependence on fossil fuels and contribute to the generation of electricity in the state of Baja California diversifying the energetic matrix state by the use of clean and renewable sources, which represents an investment opportunity between the public and private sector.