The Caribbean has suitable conditions for a significant wind energy development, which makes a good planning for the future renewable energy mix essential. The impact of climate change on Caribbean wind power has been analyzed by means of an ensemble of CORDEX regional climate models (RCMs) under the RCP8.5 warming scenario. The offshore wind energy resource was classified for the historical period and for the future considering wind energy factors, environmental risk factors and cost factors whose weights were estimated by a Delphi method. Future projections show a maximum annual wind increase, ∼0.4 ms−1 (8%), in most of the Caribbean, except in the Yucatán Basin. This increment occurs mainly during the wet season, ∼0.5 ms−1 (∼10%), associated with changes in the extension of the North Atlantic Subtropical High, which will strengthen the Caribbean low-level jet. Additionally, the moderate wind increase, ∼0.2 ms−1 (∼4%), projected during the dry season is restricted to the southeastern coast and it is associated with an increment in the land-ocean temperature difference (∼1 °C), which will intensify local easterly winds. The low-level jet region was classified as the richest wind energy resource in the Caribbean for the future with a larger extension compared to the historical period.

Sea surface temperature (SST) variability was analyzed for the Bay of Biscay over the period 1982–2014 using data from NOAA 1/4 degree daily OI database. Trends were analyzed on a monthly scale since previous studies suggest that the rate of change was not homogeneous at annual and seasonal scales. The warming calculated for the whole area at the annual scale was 0.26 ± 0.03°C dec−1, although the intensity was observed to depend on themonth. Higher warming trends were detected from September to November and from April to June with values higher than 0.3°C dec−1, whilst lower SST trends were detected from January to March and from July to August with values below0.2°C dec−1.Warming ismainly due to the increase in the duration of thewarmseason (between 6 and 14 days dec−1)more than the milder winters or warmer summers. This fact ismainly responsible for the increase in the frequency of extreme hot SST days measured in spring (1.16 ± 0.23 days dec−1) and autumn (1.81±0.42 days dec−1). In contrast, trends observed during the warmestmonth (August), are characterized by an increase (~1.0 days dec−1) near shore and a decrease (~−1.0 days dec−1) in the oceanic part of the bay.

The coastal area north of Yucatan has experienced a cooling SST trend from 1982 to 2015 during the upwelling season (May–September) that contrasts with the warming observed at the adjacent ocean area. Different drivers were analyzed to identify the possible causes of that unusual coastal cooling. Changes in coastal upwelling and in sea-atmosphere heat fluxes are not consistent with the observed coastal cooling. The eastward shift of the Yucatan Current observed over the last decades is hypothesized as the most probable cause of coastal cooling. This shift enhances the vertical transport of cold deeper water to the continental shelf from where it is pumped to the surface by upwelling favorable westerly winds.

Marine renewable energies can play a key role by reducing the dependency on fossil fuels and, therefore, mitigating climate change. Among them, it is expected that wave energy will experience rapid growth in the upcoming decades. Thus, it is important to know how wave climate will change and how suitable the wave energy converters (WECs) will be to the new wave conditions. This paper aims to evaluate the capability of four different WECs—a WaveRoller type device (WRTD), Atargis, AquaBuoy and RM5—to extract wave energy on the Northwest coast of Spain (NWCS). The analysis was performed using the high-resolution wave data obtained from the Simulating Waves Nearshore (SWAN) model over the near future winters (2026–2045). The energy output (PE), the power load factor (ε), the normalized capture width (NCw) and the operational time (OT) were analyzed. According to these parameters, among the devices that work for intermediate-deep waters, Atargis would be the best option (PE = 1400 ± 56 kW, ε = 55.4 ± 2.2%, NCw = 35.5 ± 4.1% and OT = 84.5 ± 3.3%). The WRTD would also be a good option for shallow nearshore areas with PE = 427 ± 248 kW, ε = 12.8 ± 7.4%, NCw = 48.9 ± 9.6% and OT = 88.7 ± 18.9%. A combination of Atargis and WRTDs is proposed to make up the future wave energy farms on the NWCS.