Work

Operational coastal ocean modelling for tidal stream turbine arrays

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Operational ocean models that deliver real-time prediction to represent and interpret the ocean at large scales are widely applied for Earth and ocean observation. An evolution to these could be equivalent systems designed for more specific engineering and finer-scale (i.e metre-scale) applications. With this in mind, we consider the scope of operational modelling for tidal stream turbine arrays, where multiple scales of coastal ocean hydrodynamics must be reconciled to facilitate the sustainable conversion of tidal hydrokinetic energy. In order to monitor an array's performance, impact, and ocean interactions, an operational modelling system must resolve both metocean forcing from tens of kilometres away and fine-scale flow patterns around individual turbines. This study aims to demonstrate the functionality, utility, and sensitivity of an operational model to support the design of tidal arrays subject to the underlying model configuration at the core of the forecasting. We focus on a tidal turbine array operating in the Pentland Firth, Scotland. We propose an architecture and demonstrate its utility for coastal ocean management. The tidal array system is designed to operate in real-time, allows web clients to ingest data, and returns to end-users design data summarised and visualised in a web dashboard, alongside a series of appropriate metrics. We note significant trade-offs with respect to the modelling setup balancing resolution and accuracy against measured data. We also demonstrate the value of multi-scale ocean modelling from an operational perspective, which focuses the allocation of computational effort to extract near-real-time information reliably.

Source: Applied Ocean Research

DOI: 10.1016/j.apor.2025.104847