Wave energy and nearshore hotspots in Gulf of Oman

Since the usage of fossil fuels results in increasing the greenhouse gasses emission and regarding that they will be finished someday, using the renewable energy resources is of great importance. Wave energy has the highest energy density among the marine renewable energy. Therefore, in this study, wave energy is assessed in coastal areas of the northern Gulf of Oman. Wave energy was obtained from the time series of wave characteristics produced by numerical modeling for 12 years. After wave hindcasting in a grid covers the whole Gulf of Oman as well as the northern parts of the Arabian Sea, seasonal and monthly wave power distribution was assessed. The results show that the wave energy is higher in summer, in July while it is lower in autumn, in October. All power distributions indicate the increasing of wave power towards the Indian Ocean. Five coastal sites were selected for assessment of the wave power named Sirik, Jask, Googsar, Chabahar and Govatr. Comparison of the annual and seasonal average wave power shows that between the mentioned five sites, the highest average wave power exists in Govatr in all seasons. The average wave power is higher in month February in Sirik, Jask and Googsar while it is higher is July in Chabahar and Govatr. Maximum wave power is higher in winter for all five stations. Analysis of the wave power roses indicates that the dominant wave direction is western south west in Sirik, south east in Jask, west in Googsar and south in Chabahar and Govatr. The dominant direction of the wave propagation varies also in some season.