IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/renene/v36y2011i2p689-698.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Wave resource in El Hierro—an island towards energy self-sufficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Iglesias, G.
  • Carballo, R.

Abstract

The island of El Hierro (Spain), a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in the Atlantic Ocean, aims to become the first 100% renewable energy island in the world. With a €54 million wind project already under way, the present research looks at the island’s wave resource using a 44-year hindcast dataset obtained through numerical modelling. The geographical distribution of wave energy is examined on the basis of eight study sites around the island. A substantial resource is found west and north of El Hierro, with average wave power in the order of 25 kW m−1 and total annual energy in excess 200 MW h m−1; the resource is less abundant east and south of the island. In addition to these geographical variations, wave energy in El Hierro presents seasonal variations, with energetic winters and mild summers. After analysing the total resource and its spatial and seasonal variations, its composition in terms of sea states (significant wave heights and energy periods) is examined, and how this composition affects the selection of the Wave Energy Converters to be installed is discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Iglesias, G. & Carballo, R., 2011. "Wave resource in El Hierro—an island towards energy self-sufficiency," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 689-698.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:36:y:2011:i:2:p:689-698
    DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2010.08.021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148110003915
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.renene.2010.08.021?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Carballo, R. & Iglesias, G. & Castro, A., 2009. "Numerical model evaluation of tidal stream energy resources in the Ría de Muros (NW Spain)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1517-1524.
    2. Iglesias, G. & Carballo, R., 2009. "Wave energy potential along the Death Coast (Spain)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1963-1975.
    3. Henfridsson, Urban & Neimane, Viktoria & Strand, Kerstin & Kapper, Robert & Bernhoff, Hans & Danielsson, Oskar & Leijon, Mats & Sundberg, Jan & Thorburn, Karin & Ericsson, Ellerth & Bergman, Karl, 2007. "Wave energy potential in the Baltic Sea and the Danish part of the North Sea, with reflections on the Skagerrak," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 2069-2084.
    4. Dunnett, David & Wallace, James S., 2009. "Electricity generation from wave power in Canada," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 179-195.
    5. Margheritini, L. & Vicinanza, D. & Frigaard, P., 2009. "SSG wave energy converter: Design, reliability and hydraulic performance of an innovative overtopping device," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 1371-1380.
    6. Iglesias, G. & López, M. & Carballo, R. & Castro, A. & Fraguela, J.A. & Frigaard, P., 2009. "Wave energy potential in Galicia (NW Spain)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 2323-2333.
    7. Iglesias, G. & Carballo, R., 2010. "Offshore and inshore wave energy assessment: Asturias (N Spain)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 1964-1972.
    8. Fusco, Francesco & Nolan, Gary & Ringwood, John V., 2010. "Variability reduction through optimal combination of wind/wave resources – An Irish case study," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 314-325.
    9. Tedd, James & Peter Kofoed, Jens, 2009. "Measurements of overtopping flow time series on the Wave Dragon, wave energy converter," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 711-717.
    10. Iglesias, G. & Carballo, R., 2010. "Wave energy resource in the Estaca de Bares area (Spain)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 1574-1584.
    11. Mollison, Denis & Pontes, M.T., 1992. "Assessing the Portuguese wave-power resource," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 255-268.
    12. Clément, Alain & McCullen, Pat & Falcão, António & Fiorentino, Antonio & Gardner, Fred & Hammarlund, Karin & Lemonis, George & Lewis, Tony & Nielsen, Kim & Petroncini, Simona & Pontes, M. -Teresa & Sc, 2002. "Wave energy in Europe: current status and perspectives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 6(5), pages 405-431, October.
    13. Bernhoff, Hans & Sjöstedt, Elisabeth & Leijon, Mats, 2006. "Wave energy resources in sheltered sea areas: A case study of the Baltic Sea," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(13), pages 2164-2170.
    14. Folley, M. & Whittaker, T.J.T., 2009. "Analysis of the nearshore wave energy resource," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1709-1715.
    15. Harrison, Gareth P. & Wallace, A. Robin, 2005. "Climate sensitivity of marine energy," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(12), pages 1801-1817.
    16. Lund, H. & Mathiesen, B.V., 2009. "Energy system analysis of 100% renewable energy systems—The case of Denmark in years 2030 and 2050," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 524-531.
    17. Lund, H., 2006. "Large-scale integration of optimal combinations of PV, wind and wave power into the electricity supply," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 503-515.
    18. Waters, Rafael & Engström, Jens & Isberg, Jan & Leijon, Mats, 2009. "Wave climate off the Swedish west coast," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1600-1606.
    19. Babarit, A. & Ben Ahmed, H. & Clément, A.H. & Debusschere, V. & Duclos, G. & Multon, B. & Robin, G., 2006. "Simulation of electricity supply of an Atlantic island by offshore wind turbines and wave energy converters associated with a medium scale local energy storage," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 153-160.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Iglesias, G. & Carballo, R., 2010. "Wave power for La Isla Bonita," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 5013-5021.
    2. Iglesias, G. & Carballo, R., 2014. "Wave farm impact: The role of farm-to-coast distance," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 375-385.
    3. Iglesias, G. & Carballo, R., 2011. "Choosing the site for the first wave farm in a region: A case study in the Galician Southwest (Spain)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(9), pages 5525-5531.
    4. Astariz, S. & Iglesias, G., 2015. "The economics of wave energy: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 397-408.
    5. Akpınar, Adem & Kömürcü, Murat İhsan, 2012. "Wave energy potential along the south-east coasts of the Black Sea," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 289-302.
    6. Astariz, S. & Perez-Collazo, C. & Abanades, J. & Iglesias, G., 2015. "Towards the optimal design of a co-located wind-wave farm," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 15-24.
    7. Rusu, Liliana & Guedes Soares, C., 2012. "Wave energy assessments in the Azores islands," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 183-196.
    8. Pasquale Contestabile & Enrico Di Lauro & Paolo Galli & Cesare Corselli & Diego Vicinanza, 2017. "Offshore Wind and Wave Energy Assessment around Malè and Magoodhoo Island (Maldives)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-24, April.
    9. Liang, Bingchen & Fan, Fei & Liu, Fushun & Gao, Shanhong & Zuo, Hongyan, 2014. "22-Year wave energy hindcast for the China East Adjacent Seas," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 200-207.
    10. Khojasteh, Danial & Khojasteh, Davood & Kamali, Reza & Beyene, Asfaw & Iglesias, Gregorio, 2018. "Assessment of renewable energy resources in Iran; with a focus on wave and tidal energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2992-3005.
    11. Akpınar, Adem & Kömürcü, Murat İhsan, 2013. "Assessment of wave energy resource of the Black Sea based on 15-year numerical hindcast data," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 502-512.
    12. Liang, Bingchen & Fan, Fei & Yin, Zegao & Shi, Hongda & Lee, Dongyong, 2013. "Numerical modelling of the nearshore wave energy resources of Shandong peninsula, China," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 330-338.
    13. Veigas, M. & López, M. & Iglesias, G., 2014. "Assessing the optimal location for a shoreline wave energy converter," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 404-411.
    14. Kim, Gunwoo & Jeong, Weon Mu & Lee, Kwang Soo & Jun, Kicheon & Lee, Myung Eun, 2011. "Offshore and nearshore wave energy assessment around the Korean Peninsula," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 1460-1469.
    15. Morim, Joao & Cartwright, Nick & Etemad-Shahidi, Amir & Strauss, Darrell & Hemer, Mark, 2016. "Wave energy resource assessment along the Southeast coast of Australia on the basis of a 31-year hindcast," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C), pages 276-297.
    16. Sierra, J.P. & González-Marco, D. & Sospedra, J. & Gironella, X. & Mösso, C. & Sánchez-Arcilla, A., 2013. "Wave energy resource assessment in Lanzarote (Spain)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 480-489.
    17. Hadadpour, Sanaz & Etemad-Shahidi, Amir & Jabbari, Ebrahim & Kamranzad, Bahareh, 2014. "Wave energy and hot spots in Anzali port," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 529-536.
    18. Chen, Xinping & Wang, Kaimin & Zhang, Zenghai & Zeng, Yindong & Zhang, Yao & O'Driscoll, Kieran, 2017. "An assessment of wind and wave climate as potential sources of renewable energy in the nearshore Shenzhen coastal zone of the South China Sea," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 789-801.
    19. Wu, Shuping & Liu, Chuanyu & Chen, Xinping, 2015. "Offshore wave energy resource assessment in the East China Sea," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 628-636.
    20. Iglesias, G. & Carballo, R., 2009. "Wave energy potential along the Death Coast (Spain)," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(11), pages 1963-1975.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:renene:v:36:y:2011:i:2:p:689-698. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/renewable-energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.