Experimental investigation of motion behavior in irregular wave and site selection analysis of a hybrid offshore renewable power station for Egypt

The majority of the population living in coastal remote areas does not have access to energy sources in Egypt. Development of living standards in such areas without infrastructure can be achieved through floating power stations. Novel cylindrical power station powered by hybrid marine renewable resources is proposed to overcome energy shortage in such areas. The objective of the present study is to experimentally evaluate the motion behaviour of the proposed concept in different load conditions for critical environmental loads in order to obtain model characteristic data which is critical in the structure's verification and other post-analysis study. Furthermore, selecting suitable deployment site for the proposed concept was performed based on integrated geographical information systems and multi-criteria decision model considering the potential of renewable sources in Egypt. The experimental test was conducted using 1:100 model-scale in irregular wave which is a more realistic condition in order to check the operational safety among critical conditions. The site selection analysis show that Marsa Alam area has the highest priority to place the proposed concept. Moreover, the time-domain analysis results indicate that the proposed concept can safely operate in the selected deployment area subjected to environmental loads.