Wind and wave energy resources assessment around the Yangtze River Delta

Wind and wave fields around the Yangtze River Delta are continuously simulated to calculate wind and wave power resources. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) mode and the SWAN wave model were used to simulate wind and wave hindcasts from 1981 to 2015. The simulated wind and wave fields strongly agree with observations. The spatial distributions of the annual and monthly mean wind speeds, significant wave heights and their power densities are calculated using 35-years of simulated data. The energy roses of the average wind and wave power density at 6 typical points around the Yangtze River Delta are simulated. The results show that the mean wind power density possesses the lowest values in spring, and the density becomes increasingly larger in other seasons. Specifically, the dominant wind directions are NNW, N and NNE, and the S, SSW and SW winds also play important roles around the Yangtze River Delta.