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Wave Energy Activities at OCEANOR

Based on our global wave data base (World Wave Atlas), OCEANOR have carried out a number of wave energy pre-feasibility and resource studies around the World over the last 15 years. Some of these projects are described below.

Project Overview

Wave Energy Resource Assessment for the South Pacific

A wave energy resource assessment program was carried out by OCEANOR during 1987 to 1995 for the South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) http://www.sopac.org.fj based in Suva, Fiji with funding from the Norwegian Agency for International Development (NORAD). http://www.norad.no/

The aim was to map the ocean wave climate off the shores of several South Pacific island nations with the main objective to evaluate the wave energy resource of the islands needed to study the feasibility of developing wave power as a future clean energy source. The data collection was primarily carried out by moored data buoys off the shores of the following islands in the South Pacific: Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, Kadavu in the Fiji group, Tongatapu in the Kingdom of Tonga, Funafuti in the Tuvalu group, Efate in Vanuatu and Upolu in Western Samoa. Towards the end of the project this information was supplemented by satellite data from OCEANOR’s World Wave Atlas data base (http://www.oceanor.no/wwa).

The following technical reports were produced in the course of the project:

Barstow, S.F. and Haug, O., 1994a: The Wave Climate of the Cook Islands, SOPAC Tech. Report no. 200.

Barstow, S.F. and Haug, O., 1994b: The Wave Climate of the Kingdom of Tonga, SOPAC Tech. Report no. 201.

Barstow, S.F. and Haug, O., 1994c: The Wave Climate of Vanuatu, SOPAC Tech. Report no. 202.

Barstow, S.F. and Haug, O., 1994d: The Wave Climate of Tuvalu, SOPAC Tech. Report no. 203.

Barstow, S.F. and Haug, O., 1994e: The Wave Climate of Western Samoa, SOPAC Tech. Report no. 204.

Barstow, S.F. and Haug, O., 1994f: The Wave Climate of Fiji, SOPAC Tech. Report no. 205.

Barstow, S.F. and Haug, O., 1994g: The Wave Climate of the South West Pacific, SOPAC Tech. Report no. 206, 39 pp.

Ocean Wave Energy in the South Pacific the resource and its utilisation <http://www.sopac.org.fj> Further, a glossy brochure was produced by SOPAC entitled Ocean Wave Energy in the South Pacific – the resource and its utilisation written by Dr. Steve Barstow and Prof. Johannes Falnes. It contains a wealth of information on the wave climate of the region, an historical overview of wave power utilisation, which is brought up-to-date in a country-by-country state-of-the-art eview, details of the energy situation in each of the countries above in addition to Kiribati, and a bibliography and list of contact points in the region. The project almost lead to the building of an Oscillating Water Column (OWC) wave power plant on the south coast of Tongatapu in the late 1980s. However, the manufacturer, Kvaerner Brug pulled out of wave power, and it was never built. The report can be ordered from SOPAC (1999 price is only $10).

Wave Energy Resource Assessment for Kadavu Island, Fiji

Subsequent to the SOPAC study resource measurements were made by the Fiji Department of Energy for a number of locations including the Southern Coast of the island Kadavu in the Fiji group. This involved both directional wave measurements and satellite data assessment.

Wave Energy Resource Assessment for the Seychelles

OCEANOR carried out a wave energy resource assessment for Kvaerner Brug in 1988 at a location in the Seychelles based on global wave model data and transformation to the coast using a shallow water wave model.

Wave Energy Resource Assessment for Bali

OCEANOR carried out wave measurements at a location off Bali in Indonesia in 1987-88 in connection with a feasibility study for a Tapered Channel wave energy device (Tapchan) for Indonor. A new site at Baron, Java was eventually selected, see below.

Wave Energy Resource Assessment in connection with the Baron Wave Power Project in Java

A team coordinated by the Norwegian company Indonor AS, involving among others Norwave AS, Groener AS and Oceanor ASA has won a contract to deliver a Tapchan wave power plant to Baron on the south coast of Java in Indonesia. Various techniques including buoy measurements has been used to map the wave energy resource at the site. Oceanor has also used satellite data to evaluate the representativity of the local measurements for the longer term. An artist’s impression of the wave energy converter planned for Baron is seen below

Pre-Feasibility Study for Wave Energy in the Philippines

This project was executed by OCEANOR in 1996 for the Non-Conventional Energy Division of the Philippines Department of Energy (DoE – NCED) with funding from UNDP. The project had the following objectives:

To assess and establish the potential of wave energy in the Philippines for power generation;
To determine the technological viability, economic feasibility and the environmental desirability of utilising wave energy;
To present the findings and recommendations of the study to the concerned policy-makers, decision-makers, planners and possible private investors for the eventual formulation of a comprehensive policy and programme/project on the development and utilisation of wave energy for power generation
To enhance human resource capabilities of the DOE-NCED staff in conducting pre-investment studies and future activities of wave power through the provision of consultancy services.

In the course of the project which compiled a mass of information which will hopefully be beneficial to future parties interested in developing the resource, a report was produced, modelled on the South Pacific glossy brochure (see above). The wave energy resource was assessed based on existing data – satellite altimeter data from OCEANOR’s World Wave Atlas data base as well as global wave model data from the UK Met. Office archive held on license by OCEANOR. Further, an overview of the winds, typhoons, tides and currents around the Philippines was included in the report. The history and state of the art of wave power was given and environmental impact was discussed. A major part of the report gives detailed information on the wave climate, environmental conditions, accessibility, construction costs and other relevant information for 6 identified regions in the Philippines noted for relatively high wave conditions. The report is entitled

Ocean Wave Energy in the Philippines – the resource and its utilisation by Stephen Barstow and Johannes Falnes

Contact the Department of Energy in the Philippines with respect to availability.

European Wave Energy Resource Atlas (WERATLAS)

WERATLAS was a collaborative EC project under the JOULE programme lead by INETI in Portugal and with the following partners:

The project developed offshore wave energy statistics throughout Europe under a user-friendly PC software. The main data sources were WAM wave model data from ECMWF in the UK and satellite altimeter data. More details of this atlas and an on-line order form can be found at the project’s Web site (http://www.ineti.pt/ite/weratlas/)

Satellite Altimeter Data in Wave Energy Studies

This was the title of a paper we presented at the WAVES ‘97 conference at Virginia Beach, USA in November 1997. The full text is included here.

In the paper is shown a map of the overall wave energy resource for South America based on 2 years of Topex satellite altimeter data. This is part of a global map, which is presented here.

Please click on the image if you wish to download the high resolution version of this image.

This clearly shows that the most energy rich coastlines in the world are located on the coasts of territories with a western exposure to the Southern Ocean (Chile, South Australia, south western coasts in South Island, New Zealand as well as parts of Western Europe, noteably Ireland, Scotland and Iceland as well as western Canada and South Africa). This does not necessarily mean that these areas have the highest potential for wave energy exploitation as there are many factors involved. Several of these latter areas are isolated with poor communications. The highest potential at the first stage for wave energy is probably areas such as islands in the trade wind belt of the Pacific, where overall wave energy is much lower but considerably more steady both in strength and direction. Such islands today often rely on expensive imported diesel for power generation.

Contact Us:

You may contact us by e-mail at wwa@oceanor.no.

Useful Links:

The IEA GREENTIE Directory database (http://www.greentie.org ) provides information on over 7,700 organisations wordwide involved with greenhouse gas mitigating technologies, including many working with wave energy.

The Organisation for the Enhancement of Wavepower in Denmark: http://www.waveenergy.dk/

NTNU: <www.phys.ntnu.no/glos/grupper/stralbol/bolgegrp.html> (The wave-power group lead by Professor Johannes Falnes at the Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU)

WERATLAS: http://www.ineti.pt/ite/weratlas

SOPAC: http://www.sopac.org.fj

INDONOR: (Project leader of the project to build a Tapchan wave energy converter at Baron, Java) :
E-mail - per.stephansen@indonor.no

CONWEC (Controlled Wave Energy Converter): See the NTNU site <http://www.phys.ntnu.no/glos/grupper/stralbol/bolgegrp.html> for details on the development of this interesting new device. E-mail to the company CONWEC AS is: conwec@iname.com

Ocean Power Delivery Ltd http://www.oceanpd.com is a company developing the Pelamis offshore wave power device. They have won a contract from the Scottish Renewables Obligation Third Order to install a pair of 375kW prototype devices off Islay, Scotland early in 2002.

This Renewable Energy Webring site owned by Stephen Barstow.
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