Suitable Locations of Ocean Renewable Energy in Coastal Indian …
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their immense capacity, remain unused within the country. Once this genre of energy
is explored by the government, it would also fill up various deficits that the power
distribution system in the country faces (a total power deficit of 8567 million units
occurred during 2017–18 itself [8]). Thus, investments by the government in this
renewable form of energy will act as an added benefit to the power distribution
system of India.
A GIS-based approach to handle data involving spatial or land analysis has proven
to be an efficient means in the field of research. From finding the location of solar
photovoltaic and concentrated solar power plants near Murcia city, Spain [10, 11],
identifying suitable solar sites in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey [12], to
GIS-based analysis to search for the optimum sites for the location of electrical
substation [13], or routing of transmission lines [14] and site location suitability for
ocean renewable energy in Indonesia [15], the instances for the same are numerous.
In this study, the authors thoroughly examine the coastline of Kerala using a
GIS-based approach, classifying the coasts based on the different forms of ocean’s
renewable energy, namely energy from ocean currents, wave energy, wind energy,
and tidal energy, that can be extracted from them. The analysis is done by assessing
the available physical data for the seashores and comparing them with predefined
minimal values for extraction of that particular energy based on previous research in
that genre and then concluding the optimal energy system that can be invested in for a
particular beach of Kerala. This has further been explained under the ‘Methodology’
section of the paper. The sample calculation for Kovalam beach within the state was
taken up to show the real-time formulation of data values.
2 Methodology
As already explained, a GIS-based analysis is a proven mechanism to handle any case
involving variations or calculations with spatial data. Open-source software, Q-GIS,
has been used to sort out the collected geographical data into its computable forms.
For the establishment of an ocean renewable energy plant, the following sources
have been taken into consideration: ocean currents, the height of waves, ocean wind
energy, and ocean tides. The data was collected over a year, and then it was filtered
out to remove unreliable data values. Mean value and standard deviation methods
were used to get the data used for calculation. Suitable assumptions were also made
in cases where it could be pertained by checking previous or neighboring locational
data.
For the calculation, ten major beaches were taken along the coastline of Kerala,
namely the beaches of Bekal, Payyambalam, Kappad, Kozhikode, Beypore, Cherai,
Alappuzha, Thirumullavaram, Varkala, and Kovalam. The collected data for the
mentioned beaches were then implemented on a Q-GIS interface, to get to a
conclusion. The beaches considered for calculation have been shown in Fig. 1.
83
their immense capacity, remain unused within the country. Once this genre of energy
is explored by the government, it would also fill up various deficits that the power
distribution system in the country faces (a total power deficit of 8567 million units
occurred during 2017–18 itself [8]). Thus, investments by the government in this
renewable form of energy will act as an added benefit to the power distribution
system of India.
A GIS-based approach to handle data involving spatial or land analysis has proven
to be an efficient means in the field of research. From finding the location of solar
photovoltaic and concentrated solar power plants near Murcia city, Spain [10, 11],
identifying suitable solar sites in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey [12], to
GIS-based analysis to search for the optimum sites for the location of electrical
substation [13], or routing of transmission lines [14] and site location suitability for
ocean renewable energy in Indonesia [15], the instances for the same are numerous.
In this study, the authors thoroughly examine the coastline of Kerala using a
GIS-based approach, classifying the coasts based on the different forms of ocean’s
renewable energy, namely energy from ocean currents, wave energy, wind energy,
and tidal energy, that can be extracted from them. The analysis is done by assessing
the available physical data for the seashores and comparing them with predefined
minimal values for extraction of that particular energy based on previous research in
that genre and then concluding the optimal energy system that can be invested in for a
particular beach of Kerala. This has further been explained under the ‘Methodology’
section of the paper. The sample calculation for Kovalam beach within the state was
taken up to show the real-time formulation of data values.
2 Methodology
As already explained, a GIS-based analysis is a proven mechanism to handle any case
involving variations or calculations with spatial data. Open-source software, Q-GIS,
has been used to sort out the collected geographical data into its computable forms.
For the establishment of an ocean renewable energy plant, the following sources
have been taken into consideration: ocean currents, the height of waves, ocean wind
energy, and ocean tides. The data was collected over a year, and then it was filtered
out to remove unreliable data values. Mean value and standard deviation methods
were used to get the data used for calculation. Suitable assumptions were also made
in cases where it could be pertained by checking previous or neighboring locational
data.
For the calculation, ten major beaches were taken along the coastline of Kerala,
namely the beaches of Bekal, Payyambalam, Kappad, Kozhikode, Beypore, Cherai,
Alappuzha, Thirumullavaram, Varkala, and Kovalam. The collected data for the
mentioned beaches were then implemented on a Q-GIS interface, to get to a
conclusion. The beaches considered for calculation have been shown in Fig. 1.