The Adriatic Sea Wave Energy Analysis

Nowadays we are witnesses of renewable energy becoming more popular in Croatia. According to the Annual Energy Report in Croatia, in 2013 the total electricity production in the Republic of Croatia amounted to 13 431.1 GWh, of which 65.2 % was produced from renewable energy sources, including large hydro power plants. In this, large hydro power plants had a share of 60.3 %, whereas 4.9 % of electricity was produced from other renewable sources, such as small hydro power plants, wind energy, solar energy, biomass, biogas and photovoltaic systems. Electricity produced from renewable energy sources had a share of 48.2 % in the gross electricity consumption in Croatia. In that, electricity produced in large hydro power plants had a share of 44.6 %, whereas the electricity produced from other renewable sources had a share of 3.6 %. As a member of European Union and in the spirit of sustainable development, Croatia is obligated to increase current total energy production achieved by renewable sources of energy from today's production of 4.9 % and reach the production of 20 % by the year 2020. On the other hand, Croatia is famous as a Mediterranean country with the length of the Adriatic coastline of 1777 km. If we include the additional 1246 islands it reaches the length of 6000 kin. The average day amplitude of tides are not remarkable: In Dubrovnik amplitude is 22 cm, in Rovinj it is 47 cm, and is therefore not interesting from an energy viewpoint. According to some authors, the Adriatic Sea belong to seas with energy potential below 5kW/m which is not economically acceptable to use. In this paper, the analysis of wave parameters across the Adriatic coastline was made on the base of a 10 years simulation. According wave analysis energy potential is determined.