Experimental results on power absorption from a wave energy converter at the Lysekil wave energy research site

Abstract

Power generation from wave power has a large potential to contribute to our electric energy production, and today, many wave power projects are close to be commercialized. However, one key issue to solve for many projects is to decrease the cost per installed kW. One way to do this is to investigate which parameters that have a significant impact on the wave energy converters (WEC) performance.In this paper, experimental results on power absorption from a directly driven point absorbing WEC are presented. The experiments have been carried out at the Lysekil research site in Sweden. To investigate the performance of the WEC, the absorbed power and the speed of the translator are compared. The result confirms that the buoy size and the translator weight have a large impact on the power absorption from the generator. By optimizing the buoy size and translator weight, the WEC is believed to produce power more evenly over the upward and downward cycle.Moreover, to predict the maximum power limit during normal operation, a simulation model has been derived. The results correlates well with experimental data during normal operation.