Abstract
Combined energy systems, such as co-located wave energy converters and offshore wind turbines, have recently emerged as a solution to increase the competitiveness of marine energy by taking advantage of the synergies between renewables, leading to a more sustainable use of the marine resource, improvements in the variability of the power output and reductions in the energy cost. The selection of suitable locations for combined energy farms is naturally one of the key issues for the realisation of these synergies. In this paper a new tool is presented to determine the optimum locations by assessing not only the existing resource but also its variability and the correlation between waves and winds. The methodology is< implemented through a case study in the North Sea area.