ORCID

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Achieving cost reduction in wave energy conversion is seen as essential to enabling the progress of the sector. Atutility scale in a wave farm, multiple devices are likely to be deployed in array configurations. Closely spaced,compact wave energy converter (WEC) arrays are a promising option for cost reduction, realising synergies inoperation and maintenance tasks and auxiliary installations, whilst achieving economies of scale. Mooring andanchorage systems are known to be a major component of the structural costs, and the use of interconnectinglines between neighbouring devices can reduce the number of anchors and minimise total line length. In thispaper, we present the experimental study of different configurations of a five-device array of spar-buoy oscillating-water-column wave energy converters in a wave basin, focusing on the analysis of the power productionperformance. The study compares the performance of a single isolated device, an array with independentlymoored devices and three arrays with inter-body connections, with different levels of connectivity in themooring arrangement. Results show considerable performance implications linked to the interconnecting ofdevices, with the interconnected array configurations yielding a 75% increase in the annual energy extractedcompared to the baseline (non-interconnected) arrangement. The performance enhancements are primarilyattributed to the interconnecting moorings resulting in greater heave motion at higher frequencies for which thephase relationship between the water column and heave motion is more beneficial. Evidence is also presentedthat positive intra-array effects occur within interconnected arrays when the wavelength is equal to the arrayspacing.

Publication Date

2021-01-01

Publication Title

Applied Ocean Research

Volume

115

ISSN

0141-1187

Acceptance Date

2021-07-24

Deposit Date

2021-04-11

Embargo Period

2021-11-05

Funding

This work was funded by EU Horizon 2020 under grant agreement No 641334: WETFEET - Wave Energy Transition to Future by Evolution of Engineering and Technology. This work was also partly supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) through IDMEC, under LAETA, project UIDB/50022/2020, and partly supported by the UKRI Supergen ORE Hub, EP/S000747/1.

Keywords

Wave energy, Interconnected moorings, Shared moorings and anchors, Offshore renewable energy, Ocean energy, Oscillating water column

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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