TY - JOUR

T1 - Swansea Bay tidal lagoon annual energy estimation

AU - Petley, Sean

AU - Aggidis, George

N1 - This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Ocean Engineering. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Ocean Engineering, 111, 2016 DOI: 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2015.11.022

PY - 2016/1/1

Y1 - 2016/1/1

N2 - UK Energy policy is focused on the challenges posed by energy security and climate change, however, efforts to develop a low-carbon economy have overlooked tidal energy a vast and unexploited worldwide resource. Since 1981, UK tidal lagoon schemes have been recommended as an economically and environmentally attractive alternative to tidal barrages. More recently, two proposals for tidal lagoons in Swansea Bay have emerged and there have been several reports documenting the potential to harness significant tidal energy from Swansea Bay using a tidal lagoon. This paper assists in determining a realistic approximation of the energy generation potential in Swansea Bay, a numerical estimation is obtained from a zero dimension, 0D, ‘backwards difference’ computational model, utilising the latest turbine data available and high-resolution bathymetric data. This paper models the behaviour of the tidal lagoon in dual mode generation, in line with the above proposals. The results of model testing using a variety of fixed and variable parameters are displayed. The ebb mode model with provision for pumping at high tide is then explored further by carrying out optimisations of the starting head, number of turbines and turbine diameter in order to determine the maximum annual energy output from the tidal lagoon.

AB - UK Energy policy is focused on the challenges posed by energy security and climate change, however, efforts to develop a low-carbon economy have overlooked tidal energy a vast and unexploited worldwide resource. Since 1981, UK tidal lagoon schemes have been recommended as an economically and environmentally attractive alternative to tidal barrages. More recently, two proposals for tidal lagoons in Swansea Bay have emerged and there have been several reports documenting the potential to harness significant tidal energy from Swansea Bay using a tidal lagoon. This paper assists in determining a realistic approximation of the energy generation potential in Swansea Bay, a numerical estimation is obtained from a zero dimension, 0D, ‘backwards difference’ computational model, utilising the latest turbine data available and high-resolution bathymetric data. This paper models the behaviour of the tidal lagoon in dual mode generation, in line with the above proposals. The results of model testing using a variety of fixed and variable parameters are displayed. The ebb mode model with provision for pumping at high tide is then explored further by carrying out optimisations of the starting head, number of turbines and turbine diameter in order to determine the maximum annual energy output from the tidal lagoon.

KW - Tidal lagoon

KW - Tidal modelling

KW - Swansea Bay

KW - Tidal power

KW - Turbines

KW - Tidal range

U2 - 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2015.11.022

DO - 10.1016/j.oceaneng.2015.11.022

M3 - Journal article

VL - 111

SP - 348

EP - 357

JO - Ocean Engineering

JF - Ocean Engineering

SN - 0029-8018

ER -