The Application of Energy Absorbers to Harness Wave Energy in the Caspian Sea: A Feasibility Study

Since renewable energy can be a good solution to respond to oil crises, the disadvantages of using them and increasing energy demand in a sustainable way in the future, and because the oceans cover two-thirds of the earth's surface, harnessing the energy of the oceans can be a source of green energy for coastal areas. At present, the generation of electricity from ocean waves by wave energy converters is considered as a potential future energy source in many countries. Currently, the electricity generation from ocean waves by wave energy converters is considered as a potential future energy source in many countries. Therefore this study aims to investigate the potential of wave energy in the Caspian Sea from the Iranian perspective, and in the next step, propose a framework to select an absorber to harvest this energy. Although there are studies to assess the potential of wave energy in this region,but none of them considered more than one type of absorber in the models. To this aim, the wind data samples of the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts are used to model the Caspian sea by implementing Mike 21 software from which the power and height of waves data are obtained within the years 2001 to 2015. Based on the results of this phase and the geographical conditions, a weighting framework is applied to select an absorber for harvesting wave energy. The results indicate that the best technology to harness energy in the Caspian Sea is the WEPTOS absorber. This technology benefits from low complexity while offering high efficiency.