Theoretical Structure of Wave Energy and Its Importance in Terms of Energy Supply Security

Introduction

Energy refers to the force expended in carrying out actions. It is the power that is consumed while acting or doing business. Therefore, energy is needed in all areas of life (Dinçer & Yüksel, 2019). Throughout history, people have met their energy needs by using fossil resources. However, fossil resources are scarce in nature and adversely affect the environment and human health (Qi et al., 2020; Du et al., 2020). However, the use of fossil resources is not evenly distributed all over the world. This situation negatively affects countries in need of energy economically (Bekun et al., 2019; Cheng et al., 2020). For this reason, it is necessary to use resources that are constantly in nature, that do not harm the environment and human health and that will ensure the economic development of countries. These resources are renewable energy resources. Renewable energy sources are constantly found in nature and when used, they do not adversely affect the environment and human health. However, countries have a positive effect on the current account balance. Therefore, the use of renewable energies in the world is important (Li et al., 2020; Dinçer & Karakuş, 2020).

Energy in the world can be obtained from different renewable energy sources. Wind, solar, biomass, geothermal, hydrogen and wave energy are considered as renewable energy sources (Zhao et al., 2021; Li et al., 2021; Zhou et al., 2020). These resources constantly renew themselves in nature (Khare et al., 2016). Therefore, some systems are being developed to obtain energy from these sources. Wave energy is one of the energy types that is important in renewable energy sources (Mikhaylov et al., 2021). The wave is formed by the wind formed on the surface of the ocean or seas. Wave energy, on the other hand, involves the conversion of force obtained from oceans or seas into electrical energy. For this reason, it is important to identify areas where wave velocities are high. 75% of the earth is covered with water (Mustapa et al., 2017). Therefore, the potential of wave energy becomes important. Wave energy is not running out. However, maintenance costs are very low. The potential of electrical energy obtained from wave energy is high. On the other hand, wave speeds and lengths must be high in order to generate electricity from wave energy. However, generators used in wave energy are noisy. Therefore, these issues should be taken into account in the use of wave energy (Younesian & Alam, 2017).

One of the important issues in renewable energy is energy supply security. Energy supply security is about the sustainability, availability and financing of the energy obtained. When energy supply security is ensured, countries also ensure their sustainable economic growth (Kınık, 2009; Zhong et al., 2020). The use of renewable energy resources reduces the import dependency of countries (Mikhaylov et al., 2018a,b). Therefore, when the use of renewable energy resources is ensured, the current account balance of the countries is positively affected. However, energy supply security for renewable energies must be ensured. In this way, it contributes to the sustainable economic development of the countries and the energy demand is provided uninterruptedly (Dinçer & Karakuş, 2020).

The electrical energy obtained from wave energy is important in meeting the energy demand. Therefore, necessary attention should be paid to wave energy systems (Qiu et al., 2020). However, energy security for wave energy needs to be provided. Wave energy must be sustainable, accessible and economically financed (Loschel et al., 2010). In this way, energy supply security is ensured. When energy supply security is ensured, the use of energy becomes sustainable and contributes to the environmental and economic development of countries (Saltık, 2016).