ESTUDIO DE LOCALIZACIÓN ÓPTIMA PARA EL APROVECHAMIENTO ENERGÉTICO DE LAS CORRIENTES MARINAS EN EL ESTRECHO DE GIBRALTAR MEDIANTE METODOLOGÍA AHP-TOPSIS

Abstract

In recent years, there has been increasing awareness of the great potential for electrical energy generation by turbines settled on the bottom of the sea, in order to make use of the tidal currents which exist in the oceans. The Strait of Gibraltar is a privileged region at world scale for this type of exploitation and is the only geographical location in all the Spanish littoral zone where this energy source has significant potential. In the present work, a study has been made on the energy potential of the area, as well as a process of decision-making employing the combined methodology through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to obtain the criteria, as well as the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), to assess the best locations of the Strait of Gibraltar to set up a tidal current energy park. Additionally, an analysis is made of the different technologies existing on the market today to harness the energy from currents and for the various locations, and finally the real extractable power for each studied technology is presented.