An Assessment of potential wave power along a coastal province, Central Vietnam

Abstract

The potential wave power has been assessed based on long-term wave data along a marginal sea area offshore Phu Yen province in Central Vietnam. Based on the publicly available WaveWatch-III reanalysis wave data (NOAA), the deep-water wave climate during the period from 1989 to 2019 has been analysed and used as the boundary condition for the MIKE21 spectral wave model. The hydrodynamic module of MIKE21 is also run in coupled mode. The model has been calibrated and verified against the measured data at three wave gauges. Simulation has been performed for every month, each with 1-2 typical wave conditions. The results show that the highest wave power (~29 kW/m) occurs in December. The distribution of wave power along the 30-m depth contour has also been presented for the annual average, NE monsoon (winter) average, and S monsoon (summer) average. The distribution map shows that wave power is slightly higher in the south of this area, and the NE monsoon season comes along with much higher wave power (7.4 times compared to that of the S monsoon season). These findings may aid in planning effective exploitation of wave energy for the region.