Analysis of the Wave Characteristics of the Baltic Sea in Terms of the Use of Wave Energy Converters

Obtaining electricity from water wave energy using energy converters has a long history, but there are still relatively few commercial devices in the world compared to other solutions using renewable energy. The probable reasons for this state of affairs are operating costs, the cost of minimizing navigation risk for ships, and the geographical and hydro-meteorological specificity of various sea areas, resulting in the use of different, difficult-to-unify solutions. It can be concluded based on a literature analysis that there are no similar commercial solutions in Poland. This article presents the characteristics of waves in the South Baltic Sea near the Polish coast. Calculations of the output power were carried out for a selected type of wave energy converter (point absorber—PA) with different design parameters stimulated by wave energy with variable amplitude and period. These calculations for three characteristic cases are related to a feasibility study of the placement of power point absorbers in the water area around the port of Łeba in Poland. Finally, a short analysis of the results is presented. The obtained calculation results under Polish EEZ conditions are promising because we obtained above 304 KW of energy for 17% of the wave time per year, which seems to be good for local applications.