Assessing the Prospect of Joint Exploitations of Offshore Wind, Wave, and Tidal Stream Energy in the Adjacent Waters of China

Abstract

The exploitation of marine renewable energy sources, such as offshore wind (OW), wave (WA), and tidal stream (TS) energy, is essential to reducing carbon emissions in China. Here, we demonstrate that a well-designed deployment of OW-WA-TS joint exploitation would be better than OW alone in improving performance in terms of the total amount and temporal stability of integrated power output in the northern Bohai Sea/Strait, the Subei Shoal, and the surrounding areas of Taiwan and Hainan Island. The design principles for an efficient joint energy deployment can be summarized as follows: first, a small ratio of WA output favors a temporally stable performance, except for areas around Taiwan Island and southwest of Hainan Island. Second, more TS turbines will contribute to steadier integrated outputs. Meanwhile, in the coastal waters of Guangdong and Zhejiang, the potential of WA to increase the total amount of power output is very high due to its minor impact on temporal stability. Finally, joint exploitation significantly reduces diurnal power fluctuations compared with OW alone, which is crucial for the steady operation of power grids, power sufficiency, and controllability in periods with low or no wind.