This paper provides a status update on the development of the Swedish wave energy research area located close to Lysekil on the Swedish West coast. The Lysekil project is run by the Centre for Renewable Electric Energy Conversion at Uppsala University. The project was started in 2004 and currently has permission to run until the end of 2013. During this time period 10 grid-connected wave energy converters, 30 buoys for studies on environmental impact, and a surveillance tower for monitoring the interaction between waves and converters will be installed and studied. To date the research area holds one complete wave energy converter connected to a measuring station on shore via a sea cable, a Wave Rider TM buoy for wave measurements, 25 buoys for studies on environmental impact, and a surveillance tower. The wave energy converter is based on a linear synchronous generator which is placed on the sea bed and driven by a heaving point absorber at the ocean surface. The converter is directly driven, i.e. it has no gearbox or other mechanical or hydraulic conversion system. This results in a simple and robust mechanical system, but also in a somewhat more complicated electrical system.

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a b s t r a c tPower 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.

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