The “EU Strategy on Offshore Renewable Energy,” published in 2020, proposes increasing Europe’s offshore wind capacity from the current 12 GW to at least 60 GW by 2030 and to 300 GW by 2050. By this latter date, the European Commission aims to integrate it with 40 GW of ocean energy and other emerging technologies.
Regarding marine renewables, fixed-bottom wind turbines have already reached a good level of deployment, while floating wind turbines, suitable for most Italian marine areas with deep waters (>50 m) even close to the coast, are at an advanced demonstration stage. Wave energy conversion devices are still in various stages of technological development, with some prototypes installed experimentally, which makes it difficult to provide definitive answers on optimal configuration, field performance, reliability, and average lifespan. The high cost of developing and testing these devices is a major factor that has slowed and continues to slow the technology’s maturity. One way to accelerate this maturity is to pair this technology with a more mature one, such as offshore wind, which could cover the costs of some infrastructure (grid connection, logistics, etc.).
One advantage of combined wave and wind power production is the “densification” of resource use in a given marine area, reducing space usage and thereby minimizing potential conflicts with other offshore activities. Additionally, due to the different variability of the two resources, combined production could help reduce the overall variability of individual outputs, improving the quality of energy fed into the electrical grid.
Combined exploitation can be achieved through co-located systems, where both wind farms and wave energy parks are deployed in a single marine area, or through hybrid systems where both devices are integrated on the same platform.
The aim of the research conducted in 2021 was to study the characteristics of combined production from wind and wave sources at the MOBI Buoy site in the Sicilian Channel. This site is representative of a promising area for future developments in marine renewables.
Specifically, regarding the co-location of facilities, the possibility of compensating production from the two different sources was analyzed to achieve a smoother temporal profile of the electricity fed into the grid. In the second case, the integration of wave energy conversion devices on a floating platform housing a large wind turbine was analyzed to assess whether offshore experimentation of the former could be conducted at moderate costs.