Development of the location suitability index for wave energy production by ANN and MCDM techniques

The exigency of energy demand from the overgrowth in the population density worldwide has prompted many countries to seek alternative renewable sources of energy. Countries with coastal regions have the advantage of the ability to utilize an extra source of renewable energy, that is, the energy from ocean waves. However, one of the major problems with wave energy is that it is location dependent, where many factors that increase its utilization potential are dependent on the feasibility of the locations. There is a lack of objective, relative and cognitive methods for the estimation of location suitability for ocean wave energy production. The present study attempts to address this lacuna and proposes a new method which is both objective and cognitive to identify suitable locations where the optimal amount of wave energy can be produced. The proposed method used the MCDM cascaded to ANN techniques to predict an index that directly represents the suitability of locations for wave energy generation. The index was applied to two different locations with varied levels of wave energy potential. The results encourage the authors for further application of the method. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.