High wave and offshore wind potentials are present along the West and North coasts of Europe. Eventually these renewable sources will become large-scale contributors to the electricity mix.
The objective of the paper is examining the advantages in combining the power production of wave converters and offshore wind turbines. The opportunities of providing a smooth and continuous power output are investigated.
The study is based on simultaneous, real power productions from Wavestar wave converter and a 525 kW wind turbine of the Nordic Folkecenter, at Hanstholm, Denmark. It examines the metocean conditions at the site and the relationship between the wind and the wave resource, and analyses the power productions of the wave converter and the wind turbine working individually and in combinations according to five different scenarios.
The analysis on environmental conditions indicates there is high correlation between winds and waves, characterised by an average delay of 2 to 3 hours. Up to 9hours-delay the correlation remains high.
Regarding power productions, results show every portfolio combining wave and wind technologies provides important benefits: minimises the percentage of time of zero-production, reduces the peaks and thus, smoothens out the power output and maintains the average production.
