A wave farm for an island: Detailed effects on the nearshore wave climate

Wave energy is of particular interest in the case of islands, and even more so if the electricity network of the island is isolated as in many Atlantic islands. The objective of this work is to analyse the impacts of wave exploitation on the nearshore wave climate of the island through a case study: the island of Tenerife (Spain), in the NE Atlantic, and a wave farm off its north coast. Two wave conditions, typical of winter and summer, and three values of the wave transmission coefficient of the Wave Energy Converters (WECs) are used. For each of these six cases, the neashore wave conditions in the lee of the farm are compared with the baseline scenario. The impact is characterized in terms of: wave height, power, energy period, directional spreading and energy dissipation due to bottom friction. We find that the impact is relevant, in particular in some of these cases, with the value of the wave transmission coefficient playing a significant role. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.