Accessible Wave Energy Resource Atlas 2005

The Accessible Wave Energy Resource Atlas 2005 describes an initial comparison between several years of hourly wave forecasts (using WAM) on a grid of points located off the Irish coast with corresponding records from a number of buoys installed in recent years. The report contains 31 figures, 43 tables and 127 graphs and was based on the analysis of approximately 51 million individual forecast and recorded values of significant wave height and wave period. The Accessible Wave Energy Resource Atlas dataset contains 24 GIS polygon files including calculations of annual average wave height and period, seasonal/annual mean technical power resource (MW), seasonal/annual mean theoretical wave energy resource (MW per hour), seasonal average power flux (kW) from Pelamis wave energy device and seasonal/annual mean technical energy (GW per hour). The data was collected within the boundary of the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone including the North Atlantic Ocean, Irish Sea, Saint Georges Channel and Celtic Sea. The report and atlas data was published in December 2005. Using Pelamis, a floating wave power converter developed by Ocean Power Delivery Ltd. in Scotland, available in 2005, allowed the mapping of the mean seasonal and annual wave energy potential around Ireland. The atlas was produced with a view to documenting the differing levels of resource that exist around the coast as an aid to policy planning and development and in line with its objective of marine resource development and wealth creation. The Accessible Wave Energy Resource Atlas was commissioned from ESB International (ESBI) by the Marine Institute (MI) in late 2004 with support from Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI) and produced in December 2005. The data generated was considered a complete representation of results produced by the wave model.