Abstract
Offshore locations present significant amounts of wave energy and free sea space, which could facilitate the deployment of larger numbers of wave energy converters (WECs) in comparison with nearshore regions. The present study aims to find a suitable design for an offshore floating version of CECO, a sloped motion WEC. For this purpose, a new design methodology is proposed in this paper for identifying and assessing possible floating configurations of CECO, which consists of four distinct set-ups obtained by varying the type of main supporting structure and the mooring system. Two options are based on spar designs and the other two on tension leg platform (TLP) designs. Based on outcomes of time-domain numerical calculations, the aforementioned configurations were assessed in terms of annual wave energy conversion and magnitude of mooring loads. Results indicate that a TLP configuration with an innovative mooring solution could increase the annual energy production by 40% with respect to the fixed version of CECO. Besides, the mooring system is found to be a key component, influencing the overall system performance.
Highlights
Extracting energy from ocean waves at offshore locations can be considered a profitable venture with enormous potential related to both economic development and responsible growth
The present study investigated systematically possible preliminary design configurations for a floating offshore wave energy converters (WECs) named OCECO, by means of numerical calculations
Two of the configurations are based on the spar concept and the other two on a tension leg platform (TLP) arrangement
Summary
Extracting energy from ocean waves at offshore locations can be considered a profitable venture with enormous potential related to both economic development and responsible growth. Global wave energy is a conspicuous resource, and it presents advantages compared to other natural resources such as solar and wind energy. Compared to these other forms of renewable energy, wave energy can be predicted with lower uncertainty, days in advance, allowing the input of electricity produced to be better managed by the electrical network. While reliability can be improved by refining the design and implementing existing industry standards [2,3,4], the economic viability can be achieved by choosing the right system design, reducing structural costs, and guarantying higher energy absorption efficiency
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