Wave energy estimation in the Persian Gulf

Since the fossil fuels will be finished in the world, usage of other sources of energy such as renewable energies is very important. One of the most important sources of the renewable energies is wave energy that has the highest energy density among the other sources. In this paper, wave energy assessment is carried out in the Persian Gulf to determine the hot spots of energy in this basin. For this purpose, wave characteristics were modeled using SWAN numerical model. ECMWF wind field was used as the model input to predict wave characteristics for the 25-year period. Calibration and verification of the SWAN model were carried out using measurements obtained from a buoy deployed near the Boushehr port. Calibration of the model was conducted for wave power instead of the significant wave height. After verification of the model, the constructed model was used to produce the wave characteristics in the entire Persian Gulf domain. The spatial and temporal resolutions of the results were 0.2º and 3 hours, respectively. The results showed that the average values of the wave power are higher in the middle part of the Persian Gulf. This is due to the long fetch of the Persian Gulf in the NW-SE direction that is also the dominant wind direction in the Persian Gulf. The most appropriate site for wave energy extraction in the Iranian coasts was found to be near the Assalouyeh.