PerAWaT - Selection of Appropriate Example Sites and Acquisition of Necessary Data to define Site Characteristics (WG3 WP6 D3)

Abstract:

The Performance Assessment of Wave and Tidal Array Systems (PerAWaT) project, launched in October 2009 with £8m of ETI investment. The project delivered validated, commercial software tools capable of significantly reducing the levels of uncertainty associated with predicting the energy yield of major wave and tidal stream energy arrays. It also produced information that will help reduce commercial risk of future large scale wave and tidal array developments.

This deliverable sets out the choice of three locations to be studied as part of WG3 WP6 and the acquisition of the necessary data to model these. The three sites chosen, the Pentland Firth, Bristol Channel and Anglesey Skerries, have different characteristic geometries and are important examples of a strait, an estuary, and a headland. To model these sites data have been obtained from a number of sources. Bathymetric data have been purchased from Seazone, tidal forcing has been taken from Le Provost database, and measurements of current data have been obtained from the British Oceanographic Data Centre and from Admiralty's TotalTide software.

Tidal measurements have been acquired for the three sites. However, it has not been practical to obtain high quality measurements in the areas where turbines will be located for the Pentland Firth and Anglesey. This will limit the confidence we have in our numerical model. None-the-less, we have sufficient data to carry out the analysis of the three locations of interest.

Author(s):

Adcock, T.A.A., Serhadlioglu, S., Houlsby, G.T. and Borthwick, A.G.L.