Abstract
Any investigation of the interaction between marine renewables and their physical environment requires detailed information about the baseline wave resource. Hebridean Marine Energy Futures (HebMarine) have been conducting a high resolution spectral wave model of the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, site of several planned wave energy deployments. The simulation, performed using DHI Mike 21 spectral wave software, was fully calibrated and validated with data from three wavebuoys and two acoustic devices. Estimating energy loss due to bottom friction, wavebreaking and whitecapping involves optimisation over a four dimensional space of calibration parameters, to ensure the model reproduces measured behaviour over a suitably representative time period. We believe that the temporal and spatial variation of wave height, period and power will be of local interest to stakeholders while the methodology and software tools will be of interest to the wider wave resource modelling community.