An investigation of the impacts of climate change on wave energy generation: The Wave Hub, Cornwall, UK - Dominic Reeve (Renewable Energy, 2011)
This paper describes a novel methodology for assessing the impact of climate change on offshore wave energy resources. The method is applied to the WaveHub site off the north coast of Cornwall for the Pelamis wave energy convertor device. The site and device specific findings suggest that while the available wave energy might be expected to ris slightly in most climate chnage scenarios the extractable energy may not do so. This is due to the changes in wave steepness and the reduction in efficiency of the device in extracting energy from steeper waves. The research was funded with support from the Southwest Regional Development Agency and from NERC through the EPIRUS project as part of their FREE programme.