Journal Article

Wind Energy Potential on the Mediterranean Harbour Breakwaters

Gaudiosi, G., Cesari, F.G.

1993

Overview

Wind Turbine installations on breakwaters have recently begun to supply electricity for harbour services on the North European coasts (Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark), where such developments are favoured by good wind regimes, site availability, and government policies promoting renewable energy. Similar WTG installations may be promoted on the Mediterranean, where land space is even more restricted but harbour and offshore areas are in some ways more suitable. Breakwaters up to 2 km long, free of heavy harbour services, are ideal sites for clusters incorporating tens of units, with spacing of 4 or 5 rotor diameters, with inexpensive supporting foundations. Medium size units, already well developed and commercially sound, would be preferred, though some corrosion problems associated with a marine environment would require particular attention. There are about 100 major harbours unevenly distributed along the Mediterranean coasts, the higher number being in the northern countries. The wind regimes are better in the North African harbours, where the annual mean wind velocity is 5-7m/s compared with 5-6 for Southern Europe, but these have shorter breakwaters. The total breakwater length available in Mediterranean harbours is 100 to 300 km, with an installation potential of 200-300 MW to produce about 400-500 GWh/year. All breakwater arrays could be grid connected through the local harbour services. The cost per kWh should be 7-10 cents ECU (8-1.3 cents US). Environmental problems such as visual impact, noise and electromagnetic interference are not expected to be significant, but the authorisation procedure for WTG siting would need to be clarified.

• Publisher: Multi-Science Publishing Company
• Subject: Breakwaters / Energy / Energy engineering / Harbors / Land use / Turbines / Wind / Wind farms / Wind power