Wave Energy Converter Selection for Erosion-Sensitive Cold-Region Island Systems: A Site-Constrained Framework with Application to the Magdalen Islands

Wave energy is a viable renewable resource for islands and isolated coastal areas looking to lessen their reliance on fossil fuels. However, the majority of wave energy converter (WEC) evaluations address site-specific limitations, including coastal erosion, sedimentary conditions, and cold-region processes, as secondary factors, with a primary focus on hydrodynamic performance and energy generation. This gap matters especially for low-lying island systems, where infrastructure resilience, coastline stability, and energy generation must be supported concurrently. Using the Magdalen Islands (Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada) as a constraint-defining reference system, this work offers a site-constrained, erosion-aware critical analysis of WEC technology. The proposed framework uses an exclusion–prioritization strategy based on technical restrictions, such as seasonal ice processes, erosion-prone sandy beaches, and limited offshore infrastructure tolerance, rather than optimizing only for energy production. The analysis shows that several offshore WEC concepts raise significant technical and environmental concerns under these conditions. The most technically sound solutions are shore-based and nearshore-integrated technologies, especially oscillating water column (OWC) systems and overtopping converters, which feature limited seabed interaction, offer structural robustness, and allow integration with coastal protection infrastructure. The screening logic is expressed as an explicit two-stage procedure that combines a disqualifying exclusion rule based on physical survivability criteria with a weighted rating of the remaining candidates, and its outcome is shown to be robust to weighting within the resolution of the rating scheme. Compared to traditional energy-centric approaches, the framework supports more robust decision-making by offering a transferable methodology for early-stage technology screening in cold-region and erosion-sensitive coastal contexts.