Ocean wave properties of Terengganu for renewable energy potential

Abstract

Wave energy has a number of significant advantages with respect to other renewable energy sources. The wave resoch characterization is a crucial point towards the exploitation of wave energy. Wave power along the Terengganu coast was analyzed at a time scale of months to examine the seasoml dependencies. These investigations show that the Terengganu coast could provide a source of low wave power. The wave climate in the Terengganu coast is among the harsh in Malaysia. The maximum wave height varies between 1-13 m and 3.13 m. The month of December has the highest probability of occurrence of significant wave heights greater than 2 m (2.15%), the possibility of this occurrence begins in November and lasts through January. Similarly, the month of December has the highest probability of occurrence of maximum wave heights greater than 2 m is 44.09% followed by January (40.86%) and November (32.78%). An identical evolution is seen for the wave heights in the classes 1-2 m, the highest frequency of occurrence is in December and represents 68.01% of the total of the month The wave mean period varies between 2.76 and 5.28 sec and monthly averaged wave peak period varies between 3.94 and 8.28 sec. The main directions in terms of wave energy is North. Further, its high wave energy potential is available during northeast monsoon season. It may be concluded that the Terengganu coast of Malaysia can consider northeast monsoon period for wave energy exploitation