Researchers from the “Dunarea de Jos” University of Galati in Romania have published a joint evaluation of the wind and wave energy resources close to the Greek islands.
Since in the island environments the resources are in general rather limited, the proposed work provides some outcomes concerning the wind and wave energy potential and the synergy between these two natural resources in the vicinity of the Greek islands.
From the analysis performed, the researchers have noted that the most energetic wave energy locations when it comes to the wave power density can be found in the vicinity of Crete, north, south and southeast of the island.
There, the wave energy potential is in the range of 2.88–2.99 kW/m, according to the study .
The island of Crete is also the location where German wave energy developer SINN Power is conducting trials on its wave energy technology.
The start-up has been supported with €1 million grant from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) to expand its research activities on Crete in 2018 with the installation of 5 additional energy converter modules next to the already existing prototype.
Regarding wind power conditions, the most energetic wind conditions are encountered west of Cios Island, followed by the regions east of Tinos and northeast of Crete.
In these locations, the annual average values of the wind power density are in the range of 286–298.6 W/m2, the study reports.
In the study, two different data sources are considered: the first data set is provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) through the ERA-Interim project covering an 11-year period.
The second data set is Archiving, Validation and Interpretation of Satellite Oceanographic data (AVISO) and covers six years of information.
Initially, 26 reference points were considered but then for a more detailed analysis they were narrowed down to 10.
Using these data, parameters such as wind speed, significant wave height (SWH) and mean wave period (MWP) have been analyzed.