ABSTRACT

India has more than 7500 km long of coastline and there is a need for a quantitative wave energy assessment along the Indian coast. A thorough and realistic assessment of wave energy potential will help the energy development agencies in different Indian states in advising the respective government in formulating the policy for wave energy harvesting along its coast. With this aim, a comprehensive attempt has been made by National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) to estimate the wave energy potential along Indian coastal state of Andhra Pradesh (AP) using simulated wave data from NIOT wave atlas (1998 to 2012). The complete coastline of the state has been divided in twelve segments with one location at the middle of the segment representing each segment. The results of the assessment are presented as per the standard in form of power matrix, bar chart and rose plots. The study estimates the total incident annual average wave power at 1733 MW and the incident wave energy at approximately 15183 GWh per year.

INTRODUCTION

Ocean energy is a clean form of renewable energy. In India wave energy, ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC), tidal energy has good potential. Wave energy Potential is approximately 8,000-80,000 TW/year of in the entire ocean (Falcão, 2010). Locations with the most potential for wave power include the western seaboard of Europe, the northern coast of the UK, and the Pacific coastlines of North and South America, Southern Africa, Australia, and New Zealand (Sanil Kumar & Anoop, 2015). The north and south temperate zones have the best sites for capturing wave power(Sathasivam & Jayashankar, 2014). The climate of India comprises a wide range of weather conditions across a vast geographic scale (Sanil Kumar et al., 2011). Due to this varied climatic condition, the Indian coast experiences large seasonal variations (Barstow et al., 2008). Thus, wave power is highly variable seasonally and geographically. In general, the wave potential in India is greatest during southwest monsoons (Sanil Kumar et al., 2013). India is estimated to have a potential of 41 GW of wave energy as per study by Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Limited (IREDA) (Indian Renewable Energy Agency Limited, 2014), The wave energy potential in India is estimated to be 5-15 kW per meter of coastline (Ravindran & Koola, 1991). Ocean energy technology is still under research to make economically sustainable system. In India, National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) is developing technologies in the field of ocean energy such as wave energy, hydrokinetic energy and ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) as shown in Fig1.

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