Chapter 10
Comparison of Wave Energy
and Offshore Wind
Laura Castro-Santos and Félix Puime Guillén
Abstract The aim of this chapter is to compare wave energy and offshore wind
energy in economic terms. The future of energy and electricity production will be
at ocean. In this sense, offshore wind and wave energy are the two main important
offshore renewable energies. However, it is important to compare them in economic
terms to calculate their feasibility in order to take strategic decisions. In this context,
aspects such as the LCOE are calculated to provide an economic comparison of these
two technologies. The methodology will be carried out for a particular case of study.
The location selected for this purpose has the offshore wind resource, and the wave
energy resource is very good: It is the region of Galicia (located in the northwest of
Spain). Results indicate the best ocean renewable energy in economic terms. This
comparison is useful for future considerations in order to select the best location for
an offshore renewable energy farm.
Keywords Wave energy · Offshore wind · Feasibility · Ocean energy · Renewable
energy
10.1 Introduction
When talking about renewable energy, it is important to point out that in addition to
the important advantages that these have over other types of energy, such as that they
do not generate polluting gases, or waste, their use is infinite and that they generate by
investment many more jobs than other alternative sources. However, it is important
to bear in mind that they may also have disadvantages for their development since
in their initial phase, the one corresponding to the investment, the profitability for
L. Castro-Santos (B )
Departamento de Enxeñaría Naval e Industrial, Escola Politécnica Superior, Universidade da
Coruña, Esteiro, 15471 Ferrol, Spain
e-mail: laura.castro.santos@udc.es
F. Puime Guillén
Department of Business, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universidade da Coruña, Campus
de Elviña, A Coruña, Spain
e-mail: felix.puime@udc.es
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
M. Shahbaz and D. Balsalobre-Lorente (eds.), Econometrics of Green Energy Handbook,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46847-7_10
211