Abstract
The Pacific Northwest of the United States is characterized by one of the greatest annual mean wave power resources in the world [1]. As a result, the wave energy resource offshore of Oregon has been characterized, through hindcast models and physical buoy data, throughout the past decade [2]–[4]. Over the past 8 years, Oregon State University (OSU) has been developing an open-ocean wave energy test facility, PacWave, which is affiliated with the Pacific Marine Energy Center (PMEC). The facility consists of north and south test sites off the coast of Newport, Oregon.
This report contains detailed analysis of wave characteristics at both the north and south sites based on a newly available 32-year SWAN hindcast simulation [5] and follows the recommendations issued by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) technical specification (TS) 62600-101 for wave energy resource assessments [6]. This assessment aims to build upon the previous wave energy characterizations in the region and provide the most up-to-date characterization of the wave energy resource at PacWave.