Evaluation of the Energetic Potential of Swell For the Canary Isles

Abstract

A summary of the methodology and calculations on the Canary Isles tidal power potential.
The background data have been provided by the Spanish State Ports (Puertos del Estado), an institution dependent on the Spanish Ministry for Public Works (Ministerio de Fomento).
Swell data have been obtained from WANA points and by means of the different beacons placed along the Canary Isles coasts which measure the height and period of swell.
In the event of dealing with real swelling, the swell analysis will be done statistically, assuming that swelling is a stochastic process nearly – stationary. This condition forces the interruption of swell registers at time intervals relatively short, but long enough to be statistically reliable. These time intervals in which swelling registers are divided for analysis are called sea states. The statistical analysis of sea states constitutes what is called short term wave analysis. At present, the State Ports controlled Average Wave Network, divides wave registers in 1 hour time sea states.
WAM is a third generation model which solves the transportation equation without any limitations in the energy spectrum shape. To this effect, a customization of the non-linear transference function and the specification of the dissipation functions were necessary.