Investigating Wave Energy Potential in Southern Coasts of the Caspian Sea and Evaluating the Application of Gray Wolf Optimizer Algorithm

There is a significantly accelerating trend in the application of the wave energy converters. As a result, it is imperative to adopt a suitable point for implementing these systems. Besides, the Caspian Sea, as one of the most important marine renewable energy sources in Asia, is capable of supplying the coastal areas with a large amount of energy. Therefore, areas around nine ports in the southern coasts of the Caspian Sea were selected to measure their wave energy potential. Initially, the amount of energy on these points was measured using the irregular energy theory. A new approach was developed to compare these points and measure their fitness in supplying the maximum energy using the Grey Wolf optimizer (GWO) algorithm and time history analysis. In this method, the optimal parameters were first extracted from the algorithm for assessing the points within the southern areas of the Caspian Sea. These values were regarded as the assessment indices. Then, the fitness of each point was obtained using the correlation function and the norm vector to present the most optimal point with maximum waver energy exploitation potential. Finally, the side-by-side comparison of the parameters affecting the wave energy showed that an increase or decrease in the wave energy along the southern areas of the Caspian Sea is influenced more by the wave height than the depth on that points. Moreover, the waver energy concentration occurs in the range of Hs = 3 and $T_e$ range is between $0.75\times T_{e_{max}}$ and $0.85\times T_{e_{max}}$.