Suitable Locations of Ocean Renewable Energy in Coastal Indian …
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cannot be harvested in the Kovalam Beach area as well. If there is a similar data
collection for all the beaches along the Kerala coastline, the estimated power which
can be obtained can be calculated for each of the beaches for each source of ocean
renewable energy.
However, extraction of data for each beach demands an exquisite and extensive
study of the coastline areas, which is quite beyond the scope of this paper. As obtained
from the results wave energy, if it can be harvested, then it will prove to be the most
profitable among the ocean energy resources. This is basically due to favorable wave
heights in the ocean along the beaches of Kerala, as opposed to the current energy,
which is fairly lesser in amount because of the slower speeds of the Arabian and
Equatorial currents along the Malabar Coast in India.
3 Results and Discussions
Currents in the ocean, ocean tides, wind energy, and energy in the form of wave
energy are the main realms of ocean renewable energy. To utilize each of those
energy realms, a different approach of energy production is used, unique to that form
of energy, not only for Kerala but for any other part of the world as well. The areas
which were found suitable for investment in ocean renewable energy sources have
been demonstrated in Fig. 6. The figure has been extracted using Q-GIS. As evident
from the resultant map, three beaches: Bekal, Kozhikode, and Cherai were found
Fig. 6 Resultant map showing suitability for installation of ocean renewable energy plants in Kerala
(plotted using Q-GIS)
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cannot be harvested in the Kovalam Beach area as well. If there is a similar data
collection for all the beaches along the Kerala coastline, the estimated power which
can be obtained can be calculated for each of the beaches for each source of ocean
renewable energy.
However, extraction of data for each beach demands an exquisite and extensive
study of the coastline areas, which is quite beyond the scope of this paper. As obtained
from the results wave energy, if it can be harvested, then it will prove to be the most
profitable among the ocean energy resources. This is basically due to favorable wave
heights in the ocean along the beaches of Kerala, as opposed to the current energy,
which is fairly lesser in amount because of the slower speeds of the Arabian and
Equatorial currents along the Malabar Coast in India.
3 Results and Discussions
Currents in the ocean, ocean tides, wind energy, and energy in the form of wave
energy are the main realms of ocean renewable energy. To utilize each of those
energy realms, a different approach of energy production is used, unique to that form
of energy, not only for Kerala but for any other part of the world as well. The areas
which were found suitable for investment in ocean renewable energy sources have
been demonstrated in Fig. 6. The figure has been extracted using Q-GIS. As evident
from the resultant map, three beaches: Bekal, Kozhikode, and Cherai were found
Fig. 6 Resultant map showing suitability for installation of ocean renewable energy plants in Kerala
(plotted using Q-GIS)