Hydrokinetic Energy Resource Assessment of the Gulf Stream Near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

The Gulf Stream near the coasts of North Carolina is considered a promising source of hydrokinetic energy. A statistical analysis is conducted to assess the energy available for extraction in this region. Weibull distribution is used as the Probability Density Function (PDF) for this purpose. The ocean current velocity data are collected from the ‘HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM)’. The data are collected at a depth of 20 m from the sea surface which is considered a good position for energy extraction. The Weibull parameters from the analysis are calculated using the maximum likelihood method. The direction of the ocean current was found to be mostly uniform in this region. The theoretical power density of this region was estimated to be more than 275 W/m2 around 70% of the time and exceeded 2000 W/m2 around 10% of the time.Copyright © 2014 by ASME