Abstract
THE generation of energy from renewable sources and with oceanic resources has great advantages, starting from the spectrum of different technologies available today. Each of these technologies harnesses a different potential that, in general terms, indicates a significant opportunity of exploitation in the Colombian case. This is because the country has an interesting maritime platform, with coasts in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. This points to a diversity of behavior not only of the waters, but of other resources such as wind and solar radiation.
Considering the available resources, we identified the main locations for self-generation of energy related to the operation and infrastructure of Ecopetrol S.A. in the Colombian Caribbean, based on their proximity to both the coast and infrastructure of interest. This with the intention of using renewable energy in specific processes, either in the current operation of the company or in future infrastructure projects.
This work presents a methodology that can be applied in different locations as an initial guide for renewables technologies selection, obtaining a preliminary analysis not only of the resource, but of the way to harness it and the costs involved. For the resource assessment, the technical potentials were estimated in determined locations with offshore wind, floating solar, wave, tidal, saline gradient and thermal gradient technologies. In the process, relevant energy converters were chosen according to the site conditions, in order to compare the current technological development of each technology. In this estimation process, it was possible to identify different parameters that allow the comparison of technologies, so that the implementation of some of them can be prioritized over others. In addition, a preliminary costs analysis was carried out in order to observe the economic scenario of each implementation.
Sites of interest
We selected sites distributed at different distances from the coast in the Colombian Caribbean and that have diverse characteristics that allow evaluating the behavior of the considered technologies.
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