Wave energy resource assessment and recoverable wave energy in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands

The present study seeks to further advance our understanding concerning the potential of wave energy in Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. Two main factors were identified as fundamental in this effort, namely; wave power availability and recoverability by wave energy converters. As such, wave data from a high-resolution numerical wave model was used in order to provide factual estimates pertaining to the amount of available energy in the region. The latter in conjunction with data provided by locally situated buoys already has shown yearly averages of 10-12 kW/m of wave crest available in the north coast of Puerto Rico and the USVIs. Based on these results, sites considered optimal for wave energy conversion, given resource availability, were further studied to estimate where the greatest amount of energy could be harvested. It is well known that one of the biggest challenges in the wave energy industry can be attributed to wave energy recoverability due to the current state of this technology [4][9]. Consequently, a group of prominent wave energy companies were contacted in order to acquire technical specifications corresponding to their respective wave energy conversion devices. Wave data obtained from buoys maintained by the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System (CariCOOS), allowed us to validate the potential yearly electrical power generated by predominant sea states suggested by the CariCOOS Nearshore Wave Model. The resulting data provides a much-needed insight on the suggested capacity factor for these devices under small high frequency waves, such as the ones commonly found in the vicinity of PR and USVI. We consider the results of this study as fundamental in further advancements of current ongoing investigations seeking to optimize power take off units operating under the aforementioned wave climatology and the expansion of this emerging market into the Caribbean.