Wave Energy Prize Experimental Sea State Selection

Abstract

A detailed methodology was used to select the sea states tested in the final stage of the Wave Energy Prize (WEPrize), a public prize challenge sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy [1]. The winner was selected based on two metrics: a threshold value expressing the benefit to effort ratio (ACE metric) and a second metric which included hydrodynamic performance-related quantities (HPQ). HPQ required additional sea states to query aspects of the techno-economic performance not addressed by ACE. Due to the nature of the WEPrize, limited time was allotted to each contestant for testing and thus a limitation on the total sea states was required. However, the applicability of these sea states was required to encompass seven deployment locations representative of the United States West Coast and Hawaii. A cluster analysis was applied to scatter diagrams in order to determine a subset of sea states that could be scaled to find the average annual power flux at each wave climate for the ACE metric. Four additional sea states were selected, including two highly energetic sea states and two bimodal sea states, to evaluate HPQ. These sea states offer a common experimental testing platform for performance in United States deployment climates.