Wave farm impact on the beach profile: A case study

Abstract

If wave energy is to become a fully-fledged renewable, its environmental impacts must be fully understood. The objective of the present work is to examine the impact of a wave farm on the beach profile through a case study. The methodology is based on two coupled numerical models: a nearshore wave propagation model and a morphodynamic model, which are run in two scenarios, both with and without the wave farm. Wave data from a nearby coastal buoy are used to prescribe the boundary conditions. A positive effect on the wave climate, cross-shore sediment transport and, consequently, the evolution of the beach profile itself due to the presence of the wave farm was found. The wave farm leads to a reduction in the erosion of the beach face. This work constitutes the first stage of the investigation of the effectiveness of a wave farm as a coastal defence measure, and the accuracy of the quantification of the erosion reduction will be enhanced in future research. In any case, the overarching picture that emerges is that wave farms, in addition to providing carbon-free energy, can be used as elements of a coastal defence scheme.

Potencial undimotriz de la región de Tarapacá (Chile) como foco de fomento productivo

“…Debido a que los costos de inversión requeridos para la puesta en marcha son elevados, es útil disponer de estimaciones de potencia de salida [35]{Reikard, 2015, Simulating and forecasting ocean wave energy in western Canada}, que considere localidades en donde se emplazará y características morfológicas de la costa y del suelo marino, ya que dependiendo de éstas la distribución energética se presenta de manera particular [31]. Además, otros focos que no han sido abordados son la incertidumbre sobre el impacto generado por las granjas de olas en el mar y la costa [36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46] o el hecho de que se considere poco rentable [32].…”

Enhancing Wave Energy Competitiveness through Co-Located Wind and Wave Energy Farms. A Review on the Shadow Effect

“…The third-generation numerical wave model SWAN (Simulating WAves Nearshore) was used to simulate wave propagation. In all simulations, high-resolution results were obtained as the model was implemented by grids with resolution higher than 40 m. Both WECs and wind turbines were represented in the model by a transmission coefficient, whose value can vary from 0% (i.e., 100% of incident wave energy absorbed) to 100% [17,18,20,27,30,[105][106][107][108]. With regard to the wind farm layout (Figure 6), the Alpha Ventus wind farm is composed by 12 turbines: six AREVA turbines with a tripod substructure and six Repower 5 M turbines with a jacket-frame substructure [109].…”

“…Nevertheless, there are some barriers that may hinder the development of marine energies, such as the early stage of development of the technologies [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11], high costs involved [12][13][14][15][16] or uncertainties regarding the environmental impacts [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Among the different alternatives of ocean energy, this work focuses on two of them: Offshore wind and wave energy.…”

Laboratory Tests in the Development of WaveCat

“…The uncertainty of the resource as well as the potential for weather windows allowing access to the device for operation and maintenance tasks should also be considered [14,15]. Secondly, the impact on the local marine environment must be assessed in terms of the effect on the coastline [16][17][18] and the immediate marine ecosystem [19], amongst others. The above impacts are not necessarily negative, as a wave farm extracting energy from an incoming wave field can protect vulnerable coastlines [20][21][22] or other renewable energy installations [23,24].…”