Wave resource assessment

Environmental awareness is growing, and consequently, so is the motivation to develop renewable energy resources. The West Coast Wave initiative (WCWI) is dedicated to assessing the gross wave resource potential and feasibility of wave power off the west coast of Vancouver Island. WCWI researchers’ findings are providing the foundation for Wave Energy Converter (WEC) developers to build their devices and for new energy generation policy to be developed. WCWI’s comprehensive model depicts sea states at over 130 000 computational grid points covering 410 000km² off the west coast of Vancouver Island, and verified using WCWI’s wave measurement buoy program. Research has shown that there are regions less than 15km from shore with 28 to 34 KW/m of potential power to be produced. Should a 50MW wave farm be set up (approx. 100 WEC devices 20m wide), it could provide up to 135.58 GWhrs of energy annually – enough to power 13 500 homes for a year.

In addition, the WCWI recently performed an Extended Research Program (ERP) in 2014 where new research was done on error analysis, implications of wave farms, and mooring design. More information can be found in the following WCWI ERP paper.