Review of marine renewable energies: Case study of Iran

The objective of this paper is to briefly review the state-of-the-art in the harnessing of marine energy and study the positions and features of the boundary and domestic seas and lakes of Iran from energy point of view and the possibility of using these energy resources. Generally, the energy potentials in the seas and oceans are classified in five groups: wave energy, tidal energy, ocean thermal energy, ocean current energy, and salinity gradient energy. Due to the variety of Iran's bodies of water, other than ocean current energy, it is possible to use the rest of these energy resources. Each body of water of Iran is suitable for a specific kind of marine energy. There are great sources of tidal energy in the Persian Gulf coasts. For thermal energy, the ideal sites are located in the Caspian Sea coasts, and wave energy can economically be extracted in the Gulf of Oman coasts as well as in remote islands which are off-grid. Finally, Urmia Lake is the best location for salinity gradient energy. This study shows that more investment is required in this area for research and small scale pilot plants in order to exploit such renewable resources. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.