Overview of open source codes to assess environmental effects of ocean wave farms (Extended Abstract)

The United States has a theoretical ocean wave energy resource potential of 1,594–2,640 TWh/year, enough to power between 143.5 and 237.6 million homes/year and contribute substantially to the United States’ energy portfolio [1]. However, wave energy converters (WECs) are currently in the early stages of research and development at low technology readiness levels. Open ocean deployment data is from demonstration-scale projects, not from utility-scale deployments. As a result, researchers, developers, and regulators rely heavily on numerical models to understand the environmental effects of wave farms. Preliminary numerical studies have demonstrated that small-scale deployments of ~10 WECs or less have little to no impact on the physical environment. But utility-scale wave farms may affect the near-field and nearshore wave environment, circulation patterns, and nearshore processes such as sediment transport. A suite of open source codes has been developed by Sandia National Laboratories focused on simulating the energy extraction of WECs to better understand and predict their potential environment effects