Techno-economic assessment of energy production potential from tidal streams in Nigeria

Electricity remains an essential commodity and is one of the most used forms of energy which can be generated from renewable and non-renewable (re)sources. Resource assessment has always constituted an initial first step in determining the potential of a resource to produce useful energy. In this work, two-dimensional aperiodic tidal series data are assessed using the continuous wavelet transform method (CWT). The data were obtained from the Hydrography Office of the Nigerian Navy (HONN) in Apapa, Lagos, for the period 2011–2015. The sites considered in this work are Apapa Lagos (latitude 6°27.0′N, longitude 3°23.0′E), Lagos Bar (latitude 6°24.0′N, longitude 3°23.9′E), and Bakana New Calabar River (latitude 4°44.0′N, longitude 6°58.0′E). The CWT method, more commonly used for periodic data, was modified and applied to the aperiodic tidal data. A fast and accurate computational MATLAB Toolbox/code [non-uniform continuous wavelet transform (NU-CWT)] was developed to characterize the data to precisely elucidate the results. Furthermore, because investors and developers require information on the economic feasibility of their investments, a levelized cost of energy (LCOE) analysis is also performed to understand the economic implications of the resource. The results indicate technically and economically significant resource potential. © 2017, The Author(s).