Assessing the impact of WEC arrays on the nearshore wave climate and power production on the Dutch coast

Abstract

As the necessity for the decarbonisation of the global electricity market increases, a range of renewable energy technologies will be implemented, one of which is wave energy. A key step in this process is the thorough quantification of both the power resource at locations of interest, and the impacts of these devices on the natural environment. The present work streamlines these 2 processes into one methodology by investigating the long-term impacts of an array of 20 WECs on the nearshore Dutch wave climate, while also calculating the potential power resource at the site considering intra-array wake effects. Simulations of 10 year duration were conducted in the baseline scenario (no farm present) and with 2 array configurations, using the spectral wave model SWAN on an unstructured mesh. It was demonstrated that the power production of the farm during this period, when wake effects are considered, is calculated to be up to 1.8% less than traditional methods. The presence of the farm is shown to reduce significant wave height and wave power in its lee, with the effects being largely attenuated at the coast. It was shown that the magnitude of the change is dependent on both the period and height of the waves at the farm, and notably the magnitude of the reduction does not increase consistently with the wave height, contradicting the sentiment that wave farms are effective protection mechanisms against damaging high-energy conditions. Furthermore, the present work suggests that changes to the nearshore breaker index may impact longshore currents that are essential for nutrient and sediment transport, the effect of which on the ecosystem is not yet well quantified.