WAVE BASIN MODELLING OF WAVE ENERGY CONVERTER ARRAYS TO EXPLORE IMPACTS ON NEARSHORE PROCESSES AND SHORELINE REALIGNMENT

The growing demand for decarbonised energy supplies and the protection of coastal environments in a changing climate provide a promising opportunity for the co-location of wave energy generation and coastal protection solutions. Evidence suggests that arrays of wave energy converters (WECs) may function in combination to provide coastal protection by absorbing and deflecting the incoming wave energy and converting it into power output (Abanades et al. 2014). The nature of WECs extracting energy from incident waves and modifying the surrounding wave field (i.e., from combined reflection and radiation) has the potential for changes to the local wave climate and coastal environment. This paper presents the approach used in the physical modelling of an array of generic oscillating water columns (OWC). A combination of wave flume and wave basin experiments were conducted to characterise a single OWC, wave shadowing by arrays of multiple OWCs, and the resulting effects on the planform coastline morphology by using a lightweight sediment model.