Long-term assessment of wave energy in the China Sea using 30-year hindcast data

Abstract

In this study, a long-term assessment of the wave energy in the China Sea was performed for a 30-year time interval (1988–2017), using the model WAVEWATCH-III. The reliability of the wave simulation results was increased by means of longer time horizon data compared to other relevant studies in the China Sea. This analysis provided information on the regional distribution as well as on the monthly and seasonal variability. The exploitation and stability of wave energy were taken into consideration, so as to find the advantage of resource exploitation. Results indicated that values of significant wave height and wave power density had obviously differences compared with different months, especially in December with a maximum significant wave height of 2.7 m and 35 kW/m of wave power density. The minimum value of them appeared in May, was 1.0 m and 4.5 kW/m, respectively. The distribution of wave energy was abundant in winter and the poorest in summer. In winter, the significant wave height in most areas was above 1.8 m, while the maximum wave energy density in summer was only 1.2 m. As for the wave power density, in winter values in most areas were above 18 kW/m, while the maximum value in summer was only 12 kW/m. In sight of regional distribution, the highest wave energy potential was located in the Northern South China Sea, the East China Sea, the Ryukyu Islands waters, east of the Taiwan Island and the Luzon Strait, with coefficient of variation was within 2.0 and occurrence of exploitation was above 80%, whereas the Bohai Sea, the northern part of the Yellow sea, the Gulf of Thailand, and the Northern Bay were in poor contribution, with occurrence of exploitation was within 50%.