Wave Energy Parks Research Articles

Layout Optimization of Wave Energy Park Based on Multi-Objective Optimization Algorithm

Abstract In this paper, both semi-analytical method and numerical simulation is applied to investigate the hydrodynamic behavior of large arrays of point-absorber wave energy converters (WECs). To analyze wave interactions among multiple WECs within an array, a semi-analytical model is developed based on the potential flow theory and the matched eigen-function expansions method. The fluid domain is divided into two kinds of regions: interior regions underneath the cylinders and an exterior region surrounding all the cylinders. The matched eigenfunction expansions method is employed to solve the radiation potential problem in each domain, and the hydrodynamic coefficients and motion response of the cylinders in the array are evaluated. To validate the accuracy of the semi-analytical method, WAMIT is adopted to simulate the wave energy park numerically and compared with the results by the semi-analytical model. The hydrodynamic characteristics and power absorption performance of the WECs within the wave energy park are analyzed. The power performance of a wave energy park is studied as functions of layout geometry, incident wave direction and separation distance between WECs respectively. Finally, MOPSO based on a surrogate model is used to optimize the layout of wave energy array.

Multi-objective decision tool for the assessment of co-located wave-wind offshore floating energy parks

This study explores the benefits of co-locating wave-wind offshore energy parks. It focuses on the leeward effects of hypothetical wave energy converter (WEC) arrays deployed offshore Viana do Castelo, Portugal, and their synergies with the WindFloat Atlantic wind farm. Wave propagation through arrays of CECO WECs and their near-field effects were simulated using SNL-SWAN model. Furthermore, a multi-objective function to evaluate and choose between WEC arrays was defined. The analysis considered a wave height reduction area index, the q-factor and a new wave energy park layout assessment index (WLA). The effectiveness of arrays was dependent on incident wave direction, layouts with larger spacing achieved higher q-factors, while lower spacing provided better shield protection. The WLA, which considers both power absorption and wave height reduction, was introduced as a decision-making tool. The results also showed that some arrangements could increase accessibility to the turbines by circa 22%, representing about 1957 h/year added to the weather window for maintenance and operation of the park. In summary, this study provides a comprehensive analysis and a decision-making strategy for determining the optimal positioning of WEC arrays, contributing to the advancement of renewable energy technologies, promoting sustainable and efficient utilization of wave and wind resources.

Wave Farms Integration in a 100% renewable isolated small power system -frequency stability and grid compliance analysis.

In general terms, the variable penetration of RE in power systems has some inherent drawbacks, such as lack of manageability and resource variability [1]. Medium (in the range of minutes) and short term (in the range of seconds) variability has a negative impact on system reliability, causing a deterioration of system frequency quality in both interconnected and, moreover, isolated systems [1-2]. Specifically, the variability of the wave energy resource is medium- and short-term. Therefore, although wave energy could be very suitable to be integrated in islands due to its location, the variable nature of wave energy could negatively impact the stability of the power grid [3].
 The case study of the work focuses on the island of El Hierro (Canary Islands, Spain). It is an isolated electrical system with a very high penetration of renewable energy sources. The generation of the electrical system is composed of a wind farm, a pumped hydroelectric power plant and conventional generation by means of a diesel power plant.
 In a previous analysis [4], the integration of energy storage systems based on flywheels was analyzed. Based on this previous analysis, the manuscript studies the influence of the integration of the wave energy park in the electrical system of El Hierro.
 On the one hand, a wave farm will be proposed to evaluate the generated power and its associated oscillation [5]. The wave energy resource at different locations along the coast of El Hierro will be taken into account. On the other hand, an aggregated inertial dynamic mode of the electrical power system will be used to evaluate the impact of the generated power on the electrical frequency and the aging/degradation effects of the hydropumping elements. The Spanish Grid Code will be taken into account regarding frequency regulation mechanisms in isolated systems.
 The degradation of the hydraulic pumping systems due to additional frequency regulation stresses and electrical frequency deterioration will be calculated and evaluated in relation to the penetration of wave energy into the system, with and without the flywheel energy storage plant. This will allow quantification of certain technical limits to wave energy penetration in isolated systems and to draw conclusions with reference to the size of such a power system.
 [1] R. S. Kaneshiro et al. “Hawaii Island (Big Island) Wind Impacts” Proc. of Workshop on Active Power Control from Wind Power, Broomfield, CO, USA, 2013.
 [2] H. R. Iswadi et al. “Irish power system primary frequency response metrics during different system non synchronous penetration,” IEEE Eindhoven PowerTech 2015, doi: 10.1109/PTC.2015.7232425.
 [3] Isabel Villalba et al. “Wave farms grid code compliance in isolated small power systems,” IET Renewable Power Generation, 2019, doi: 10.1049/iet-rpg.2018.5351.
 [4] Hilel Garcia-Pereira et al. “Comparison and Influence of Flywheels Energy Storage System Control Schemes in the Frequency Regulation of Isolated Power Systems,” IEEE Access, 2022, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3163708.
 [5] M. Blanco et al. “Study of the impact of wave energy generation in the frequency of an island electric grid,” Proc. of the 12th European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference (EWTEC). 2017.

Multiple cluster scattering with applications to wave energy park optimizations

Theory and methods to compute the wave field and hydrodynamic interaction in arrays of fixed or floating structures have many applications, ranging from offshore platforms to wave energy parks. Analytical iterative and non-iterative multiple scattering theory, and extensions thereof, are often used for this purpose. However, the computational cost grows with the number of interacting bodies, and studies of large arrays of independently moving bodies often require assumptions in terms of layout periodicity, expansion in different length scales, or neglected degrees of freedom. In optimization studies of wave energy parks, many simulations are usually required, implying that the existing methods are too slow. The current paper extends analytical multiple scattering theory by dividing the floats in clusters, and computes the hydrodynamic interaction within clusters exactly, but iteratively between clusters. The method constitutes a bridge between the iterative and non-iterative multiple scattering methods, and enables a faster modelling of parks of many floating bodies, to a retained accuracy. The proposed method is validated with numerical and analytical methods with excellent agreement, to a drastically reduced computational cost.

Grid impact and power quality assessment of wave energy parks: Different layouts and power penetrations using energy storage

Power fluctuations induced by wave energy converters (WECs) may reflect negative impact on the power quality of the power grid. Assessing their impact is an important step to ensure the grid compliance level of the energy park. The IEC 61000-4-15 standard classifies the allowable disturbances in the grid. This study analysed and assessed the grid impact in terms of flicker, harmonic distortion and voltage variations. The assessments were performed without energy storage and compared when using the energy storage. A single WEC is emulated as an irregular power output of a real WEC using a combined model of power take-off in the Simulink model. Time series based on data obtained in earlier offshore experiments, conducted at the Lysekil research site in Sweden, is used to emulate a wave energy park (WEP) power in a land-based test rig in real-time power hardware-in-the-loop simulations. A total of three and ten WECs are emulated by introducing a time delay in the time series to investigate the grid impact in each layout. Flicker emissions, voltage variations, individual and total harmonics of the voltage at the connection point in each layout are studied and compared with the limits to be grid compliant for layouts of the WEP. In addition, voltage and current harmonics for the single WEC and individual harmonics in each phase of the voltage are measured and analysed to assess the compliance level of the WEP.

Comparison of Wave Energy Park Layouts by Experimental and Numerical Methods

An experimental campaign of arrays with direct-driven wave energy converters of point-absorbing type is presented. The arrays consist of six identical floats, moving in six degrees of freedom, and six rotating power take-off systems, based on the design developed at Uppsala University. The goals of the work were to study and compare the performances of three different array layouts under several regular and irregular long-crested waves, and in addition, to determine whether the numerical predictions of the best performing array layouts were confirmed by experimental data. The simulations were executed with a frequency domain model restricted to heave, which is a computationally fast approach that was merged into a genetic algorithm optimization routine and used to find optimal array configurations. The results show that good agreement between experiments and simulations is achieved when the test conditions do not induce phenomena of parametric resonance, slack line and wave breaking. Specific non-linear dynamics or extensive sway motion are not captured by the used model, and in such cases the simulation predictions are not accurate, but can nevertheless be used to get an estimate of the power output.

Economical layout optimization of wave energy parks clustered in electrical subsystems

To obtain a maximum power output and minimized capital and operational costs, the layout of wave energy parks needs to be optimally designed. An economical model for large-scale wave energy systems is built and merged into an evolutionary optimization routine for arrays of point-absorbing energy converters. The model includes all the parameters that affect the total system revenue such as electrical cable lengths, distance from grid connection point, number of substations and hydrodynamic interaction among the devices, with the goal to find the optimal layout which minimizes the levelized cost of electricity. Converters inside the park are grouped in clusters via a k-means clustering algorithm, which allows to minimize the intra-array cable length under the input of real wave climates. The results show that the hydrodynamical interaction has a large impact on the optimal design of wave energy parks, and that the length of the intra-array cable does not play a significant role in the economical layout optimization routine for the studied wave energy park system.

Advances and Challenges in Wave Energy Park Optimization—A Review

A commercial wave energy system will typically consist of many interacting wave energy converters installed in a park. The performance of the park depends on many parameters such as array layout and number of devices, and may be evaluated based on different measures such as energy absorption, electricity quality, or cost of the produced electricity. As wave energy is currently at the stage where several large-scale installations are being planned, optimizing the park performance is an active research area, with many important contributions in the past few years. Here, this research is reviewed, with focus on identifying the current state-of-the-art, analyzing how realistic, reliable and relevant the methods and the results are, and outlining directions for future research.

Sea level variability in the Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone and adjacent seawaters: influence on a point absorbing wave energy converter

Abstract. Low-frequency sea level variability can be a critical factor for several wave energy converter (WEC) systems, for instance, linear systems with a limited stroke length. Consequently, when investigating suitable areas for deployment of those WEC systems, sea level variability should be taken into account. In order to facilitate wave energy developers finding the most suitable areas for wave energy park installations, this paper describes a study that gives them additional information by exploring the annual and monthly variability of the sea level in the Baltic Sea and adjacent seawaters, with a focus on the Swedish Exclusive Economic Zone. Overall, 10 years of reanalysis data from the Copernicus project have been used to conduct this investigation. The results are presented by means of maps showing the maximum range and the standard deviation of the sea level with a horizontal spatial resolution of about 1 km. A case study illustrates how the results can be used by the WEC developers to limit the energy absorption loss of their devices due to sea level variation. Depending on the WEC technology one wants to examine, the results lead to different conclusions. For the Uppsala point absorber L12 and the sea state considered in the case study, the most suitable sites where to deploy WEC parks from a sea level variation viewpoint are found in the Gotland basins and in the Bothnian Sea, where the energy loss due to sea level variations is negligible.

Energy absorption from parks of point‐absorbing wave energy converters in the Swedish exclusive economic zone

AbstractIn a future energy system based on renewable energy sources, wave energy will most likely play a role due to its high energy potential and low intermittency. The power production from parks of wave energy converters of point absorber type has been extensively studied. This is also the case for the wave energy resource at many coastal areas around the globe. Wave energy has not yet reached a commercial level, and a large variety of technologies exist; therefore, an established method to calculate the technical potential for wave energy has still not been established. To estimate the technical potential of wave energy conversion, some approximations inevitably need to be taken due to the systems high complexity. In this study, a detailed mapping of the wave climate and simulation of large arrays of hydrodynamically cross‐coupled wave energy converters are combined to calculate the technical potential for wave energy conversion in the Swedish exclusive economic zone. A 16‐year wave data set distributed in a 1.1 km × 1.1 km grid is used to calculate the absorbed energy from a park of 200 generic point absorbers. The areas with best potential have an average annual energy absorption of 16 GWh for the selected wave energy park adapted to 1 km2 when using a constant damping, while the theoretical upper bound is 63 GWh for the same area.

Grid integration and a power quality assessment of a wave‐energy park

This study presents a step toward the grid connection of a wave-energy park through an electric power conversion system (EPCS) developed and installed for the wave-energy harvesting in Lysekil, Sweden. The EPCS comprises a rectifier, a DC bus, and an inverter followed by a harmonic filter (HF). The higher- and lower-order harmonics injected by the inverter in a power quality context are investigated. The lower-order voltage harmonics partially distort the voltage-source inverter output grid current. A phase-locked loop-based (PLL) grid-phase tracking is used to attenuate the lower-order harmonics by reflecting the grid harmonics in the inverter output. An expression for the grid-current harmonics as a function of the grid-voltage harmonics has been derived and implemented. A mathematical model is derived to obtain a transfer function for the PLL, and finally, proportional–integral gains are tuned for stable system operation. An HF for mitigating the higher-order harmonics has been implemented. The total harmonic distortion is evaluated experimentally, and the results fulfil the grid-code requirements at various frequencies and harmonic orders.

Energy management for a grid-connected wave energy park through a hybrid energy storage system

The concern for climate change and energy consumption has increased the demand for renewable energy production considerably. Marine energy sources attract attention because of their high energy density. Wave energy is an attractive renewable energy source with large potential. Due to the nature of the ocean waves, a linear wave energy converter generates intermittent power. It is therefore crucial to regularize the power before connecting to the grid. Energy storage systems present effective ways to minimize the power fluctuations and deliver a steady power to the grid. In this paper, we present an energy management control system with a dynamic rate limiter. The method is applied to control a hybrid energy storage system, combining battery and supercapacitor, with a fully active topology controlled by the power converters. The results show that the method is able to control the charging and discharging states of the battery and the supercapacitor, and minimize the power fluctuation to the grid. The algorithm ensures low losses by shifting the required power and the stored power smoothly over the energy storage system.

The Effect of a Wave Energy Farm Protecting an Aquaculture Installation

This paper assesses the impact of a farm of wave energy converters on a nearby offshore aquaculture installation and on the nearshore dynamics. The coastal area targeted is Aguçadoura, located in the north of Portugal, where the world’s first wave farm operated in 2008. The study is focused mainly on the evaluation of the sheltering effect provided by the wave farm to the aquaculture cages. Furthermore, the possible impact on the coastal wave climate of such an energy park is also evaluated. These objectives are accomplished by performing simulations, corresponding to the wave conditions, which are more often encountered in that coastal environment. The SWAN model (Simulating WAves Nearshore) was adopted for this. Various transmission scenarios are considered to account for the impact of different types of wave converter farms on the downwave conditions. The results show that such a wave energy park might have a clear positive impact on the wave conditions fish farm installed downwave and it might also have a beneficial influence on shoreline dynamics from the perspective of coastal protection.

Arrays of Point-Absorbing Wave Energy Converters in Short-Crested Irregular Waves

For most wave energy technology concepts, large-scale electricity production and cost-efficiency require that the devices are installed together in parks. The hydrodynamical interactions between the devices will affect the total performance of the park, and the optimization of the park layout and other park design parameters is a topic of active research. Most studies have considered wave energy parks in long-crested, unidirectional waves. However, real ocean waves can be short-crested, with waves propagating simultaneously in several directions, and some studies have indicated that the wave energy park performance might change in short-crested waves. Here, theory for short-crested waves is integrated in an analytical multiple scattering method, and used to evaluate wave energy park performance in irregular, short-crested waves with different number of wave directions and directional spreading parameters. The results show that the energy absorption is comparable to the situation in long-crested waves, but that the power fluctuations are significantly lower.

Layout design of wave energy parks by a genetic algorithm

If wave energy systems are to become a viable option competitive with more mature renewable energy sources, the systems must be optimized with respect to maximal electricity production and minimized costs. The number of parameters involved in large-scale wave energy systems is typically too large for traditional optimization methods to be feasible, and the solution space may contain many local minima. Here, an optimization tool for application in wave energy design based on a genetic algorithm is presented. The internal parameters of single point-absorbing wave energy converters (buoy radius, draft and generator damping) are optimized and the results validated against parameters sweep optimization. Further, since the individual devices in a park affect each other by scattered and radiated waves propagating in all directions, the tool is used to find the optimal spatial layout of parks. Arrays with different number of devices are studied and similar optimal layouts appear in all cases, which allows extrapolation of the results to even larger parks. The results show that the tool is effective in finding layouts that avoid destructive interactions and get a q-factor slightly above 1.

Wave energy parks with point-absorbers of different dimensions

An analytical model for point-absorbing wave energy converters connected to floats of different geometries and topologies is presented. The floats can be truncated cylinder or cylinder with moonpool buoys and have different outer radius, inner radius, draft, mass and can be connected to linear generators of different power take-off constants. The model is implemented into a numerical code where the input is measured time-series of irregular waves. After validation against benchmark software, the model is used to study optimal configurations of wave energy arrays consisting of different wave energy devices. It is shown that the total power absorption can be improved if the wave energy array consists of devices of different dimensions, and that a higher power-to-mass ratio can be achieved.

Wave energy park power quality impact and collection grid economic assessment

In this study, a wave park is analysed from the economic and electrical points of view. The system under consideration goes from each wave energy unit up to the point of common connection with the main grid. Time series are obtained from simulation models for a scaled prototype and include data for mild, medium and strong sea states. The simulation models have been validated against the small scale tank testing of a prime mover, a wave rider buoy and a scaled testing of the power take-off in a land-based test rig. The design of the proposed wave park layout aims to minimise its cost and power losses. A life-cycle analysis of the park is performed showing that around 30 €/MWh will be the share of the electricity price required to install and operate the wave park grid. The power quality of the wave park and its compliance with regulations are also analysed. Special emphasis is put in the study of flicker emissions concluding that the proposed wave park is within the grid code limitations and even a reduction of a 66% in the flicker coefficients is reported when considering the aggregation of several units in one model.

Control of rapid phase oscillations in the modelling of large wave energy arrays

Several recently developed concepts for economically viable conversion of ocean wave energy are based on large arrays of point absorbers. Simulations of the hydrodynamic interactions between devices in wave energy parks provide guidelines for optimal configurations with regard to maximizing produced electricity while minimizing fluctuations and costs. Parameters that influence the performance include the geometrical lay-out of the park, the number of wave energy converters and their dimensions and separating distance, as well as the wave climate and the incoming wave spectral characteristics. However, the complexity of the simulations increases rapidly with growing number of interacting units, and simulations become a severe challenge that calls for new methods. Here we address the problem of rapid phase oscillations appearing in the simulation of large arrays of point absorbers using potential theory for the structure–fluid interaction. We do this by analytically integrating out the factors that are causing the oscillations. Our group has successfully utilized this method to model parks with up to 1000 point absorbers.

Optimizing wave energy parks with over 1000 interacting point-absorbers using an approximate analytical method

Large arrays of wave energy converters of point-absorber type are studied using an approximate analytical model. The model is validated against a numerical method that takes into account full hydrodynamic interactions based on linear potential flow theory. The low computational cost of the analytical model enables parameter studies of parks in the MW range and includes up to over 1000 interacting devices. The model is actuated by irregular wave data obtained at the Swedish west coast. In particular, focus is on comparing park geometries and improving park configurations to minimize the power fluctuations.

Methods of reducing power fluctuations in wave energy parks

One of the major challenges in constructing effective and economically viable wave energy parks is to reduce the large fluctuations in power output. In this paper, we study different methods of reducing the fluctuations and improve the output power quality. The parameters studied include the number of devices, the separating distance between units, the global and local geometries of the array, sea state and incoming wave direction, and the impact of including buoys of different radii in an array. Our results show that, e.g., the fluctuations as well as power per device decrease strictly with the number of interacting units, when the separating distance is kept constant. However, including more devices in a park with fixed area will not necessarily result in lowered power fluctuations. We also show that varying the distance between units affects the power fluctuations to a much larger extent than it affects the magnitude of the absorbed power. The fluctuations are slightly lower in more realistic, randomized geometries where the buoys tend to drift slightly off their mean positions, and significantly lower in semi-circular geometries as opposed to rectangular geometries.