Renewable energy production in the Port of Santander, Spain : a case study

Abstract

This project work will focus on the renewable energy production in the Port of Santander, a city located in the northern coast of Spain. Since the last year, the Port Authority of Santander has been considering the possibility of constructing a renewable energy power plant in order to satisfy the increasing energy demand in the port. For this reason, three alternative renewable energy sources will be studied in this project: solar energy, wind energy and marine power (tidal power and wave power). The project will cover a theoretical study of each of the energy sources, clarifying its advantages and disadvantages, as well as the current state of development of each technology and which parameters make a certain location suitable for the installation of a power plant of each type. Afterwards, there will be a presentation of the data gathered. This data will correspond to the parameters studied in the theoretical section. Afterwards, all the information obtained will be discussed and compared between the different alternatives in order to choose one of them, summarizing in the conclusion section all the reasons why this option was chosen above the others. After analyzing all the data and compare it between the different alternatives, it is concluded that wind energy has the highest possible capacity occupying less area. Also, it can be located in areas that do not interfere with the port normal activity and without occupying useful area on land by building an offshore wind farm.