Offshore wave potential of the Mediterranean Sea

Abstract

Among the most promising ocean renewable energy sources, offshore wave energy stands out. In Europe, intensive research and development of offshore wave energy technologies has been carried out with the aim of contributing to the growing demand for clean energy. In order to assess the feasibility of the development of a wave energy device in a specific region, the reliable estimation of the local wave energy potential is crucial. In this work, the offshore wave energy potential for the Mediterranean Sea is presented in an annual and seasonal basis. The assessment is based on wave data from numerical wave simulation models obtained by ECMWF. These hindcast data are in the form of time series and cover a 35-year period (1979 – 2013). In addition, in the same time scales the mean wave direction is estimated, a variable that is often omitted from similar analyses.