Energy capture potential of existing wave energy converters for Indonesian sea

The ocean fills about 70% of the earth surface, and area accepted has an enormous energy to be utilized. As an archipelago country, Indonesia should consider the ocean as one of the alternative energy resources in the future that is free and renewable. One of the promising resources with a high energy density is the ocean wave energy. The propagation of the wind waves from the Indian and Pacific Oceans influenced the amplitude and period of the waves in the southwest and northeast of the Indonesian seas. However, the development of the ocean wave technology in this area is still slow, due to the limitations of the data and a high cost. The present study aims to assess the wave energy resources by analyzing the hindcast wave data performed by the Wavewatch III model for over 21 years. Using Matlab simulations, some areas were discovered of having great potency for the wave energy generation. The simulation result was also used to evaluate selected Wave Energy Converters (WECs) and to determine their energy capturing capability in the potential site of Indonesia waters. The results of selected sites indicated that the wave energy resources in the Indonesian Sea reached 74.65 kW/m. Five WEC variants in the highest potential site selected were analyzed, and the result showed that the highest extractable power is about 157 MW by means of Overtopping variant.