Assessing the European Wave Energy Resource

Abstract

The European Wave Energy Atlas (WERATLAS), developed within a R&D European project, includes a wide range of annual and seasonal wave-climate and wave-energy statistics for 85 offshore data points distributed along the Atlantic and Mediterranean European coasts. The data used are results of the numerical wind-wave WAM model, implemented at ECMWF, and buoy data for the North Sea, Norwegian Sea, and Barents Sea. A full verification of WAM results against buoy and satellite altimeter data revealed that the accuracy of the results is very good for the North Atlantic, but the hindcasts quality is lower for the Mediterranean, probably due to poorer accuracy of the input wind fields. The patterns of power level and power directional distribution over the Northeastern Atlantic are presented along with the interannual wave and power variability. The wave power level is much lower in the Mediterranean, where it is not possible to find a general pattern for the power level and its directional distribution.