Performance of integrated FB and WEC for offshore floating solar photovoltaic farm considering the effect of hydroelasticity

Abstract

The offshore floating solar photovoltaic (PV) farm deployed in the open sea could be subjected to large environmental loading due to waves or wakes from travelling ships. To reduce the motion of the solar farm, mitigation methods such as protection of the solar farm via floating breakwater (FB) could be deployed. The FB serves as a buffer between the floating farm and the incoming wave force, and as it attenuates the wave forces, this creates a sheltered zone on the leeward side of the FB. The energy generation from the solar farm could be further enhanced via the integration of attenuator-type wave energy converters (WEC) with the FB. This paper investigates the performance of the hybrid FB – WECs as a coastal protection structure cum wave energy extraction devices. The effect of FB on mitigating the hydroelastic response of the floating solar farm is investigated. Four types of FB, i.e., I-, L-, U- and BOX-shape FBs are considered and their effectiveness in wave attenuation under regular waves arriving from different directions are studied. In addition, due to the long structure length-to-wavelength ratio of the floating solar farm and FB, the hydroelastic response of the structures is taken into consideration.