Wave Energy Potential in the Eastern Mediterranean Levantine Basin. An Integrated 10-year Study

The main characteristics of wave energy potential over Eastern Mediterranean Levantine Basin, an area of increased interest for energy resources exploration/exploitation, is presented in this work. In particular an integrated hindcasting platform consisting of state-of-the-art wind-wave numerical models at a very high resolution mode is utilized to produce a 10-year database for the wave energy potential in the Levantine Basin and the environmental parameters that affect it. The numerical results are analyzed by means of a variety of statistical measures focusing, apart from the conventional statistical information, on the potential impact of extreme values and the probability distribution functions that optimally describe the spatial and temporal distribution of the wave power potential over the Eastern Mediterranean sea area. The regions with increased values of wave energy potential are mainly the western and southern coastlines of Cyprus island, the sea area of Lebanon and Israel, as well as the coastline of Egypt especially around Alexandria. Over these areas, relatively low but also stable, and hence exploitable, wave energy potential is revealed. However, non-trivial impact of infrequent values is also recorded. Published in Renewable Energy, v69 p311-323, 2014. Prepared in collaboration with the Oceanography Centre, University of Cyprus, Nicosia, the Hellenic Naval Academy, Section of Mathematics, Piraeus, Greece, and the University of Athens, Department of Physics, Atmospheric Modeling and Weather Forecasting Group, Athens, Greece.