Climate change impact on Northwestern African offshore wind energy resources

Offshore wind is one of the most important sources of renewable energy. Therefore, it is crucial assess how this resource will evolve within the 21st century, in the context of a changing climate. North African Coastal Low-Level Jet (CLLJ) region, which encompasses offshore areas from Morocco to Senegal, has an enormous wind harvesting potential, as it provides a , persistent alongshore flow. In the current study, the present climate wind energy potential featured for two heights (100 and 250m). More importantly, the climate change impact on the energy density in the region is also depicted. For that purpose, the newest and highest regional climate simulations available are used, which include two ROM simulations (uncoupled and coupled) at 25km resolution, and 19 CORDEX-Africa runs at 50km resolution. and future (under the RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 scenarios) simulations are used, for the 1976-2005 and 2070-2099, respectively. Overall, the results show that the annual wind density is projected to increase slightly in the northern offshore areas (< +10%) and in the southern ones (> -10%). In close connection to the projected changes for the changes of the CLLJ system, in the further north regions (downwind Cap Ghir), the season shows the largest increases of wind energy, up to +20%, while in the offshore Sahara it is projected an increase of wind energy in all seasons. For the southern areas, it expected a decrease of wind energy.