Design and Potential Application of Small Scale Wave Energy Converter

Abstract

Although theoretical available wave energy is higher than most of ocean energy sources, the commercial utilization of wave energy is much slower than other ocean energy sources. The difficulty of integration with the electrical grid system and the challenges of the installation, operation and maintenance of large energy generation and transmission systems are the major reasons. Even though there are successfully tested models of wave energy converters, the fact that wave energy is directly affected by wave height and wave period makes the actual wave energy output with high variation and difficult to be predicted. And most of the previous studies on wave energy and its utilization have focused on the large scale energy production that can be integrated into a power grid system. In this paper, the authors identify and discuss stand-alone wave energy converter systems and facilities that are not connected to the electricity grid with focus on small scale wave energy systems as potential source of energy. For the proper identification, qualification and quantification of wave energy resource potential, wave properties such as wave height and period need to be characterized. This is used to properly determine and predict the probability of the occurrence of these wave properties at particular locations, which enables the choice of product design, installation, operation and maintenance to effectively capture wave energy. Meanwhile, the present technologies available for wave energy converters can be limited by location (offshore, nearshore or shoreline). Therefore, the potential applications of small scale stand-alone wave energy converter are influenced by the demand, location of the need and the appropriate technology to meet the identified needs. The paper discusses the identification of wave energy resource potentials, the location and appropriate technology suitable for small scale wave energy converter. Two simplified wave energy converter designs are created and simulated under real wave condition in order to estimate the energy production of each design.

Analysis of Wave Energy Behavior and Its Underlying Reasons in the Gulf of Mexico Based on Computer Animation and Energy Events Concept

“…Figure 21 indicates that the absence of wind EEs was rare for low thresholds throughout the year while the absence of wind EEs for high thresholds increased from May to September. Weak wind EEs correlate with seasonal low summer wave power density levels in the GoM found in previous research [28,29,32]. Figure 22 shows the number of months without wave EEs above certain thresholds over 36 years.…”

“…Previous research has indicated that there is a significant theoretical wave energy resource in the GoM to provide great benefits to the local economy if optimally extracted [28][29][30][31]. In addition, the combination of wave energy with other ocean renewable energy resources at the GoM is very interesting with very large potential and possibility for combining wind energy with wave energy [29][30][31][32][33][34].…”

Ocean Wave Energy Converters: Status and Challenges

“…The consequence of the Equations (1) to (4) above is that maximum theoretical power to be extracted from a sea wave has a relationship between the wave energy fluxes per unit length of a wave crest (the resource potential) as described in the following equations [115][116][117]. P is the average power produced at a particular period.…”

Review on Power Performance and Efficiency of Wave Energy Converters

“…Despite these setbacks, Masuda [59,60] has demonstrated that ocean waves could supply a reliable source of energy. Following more theoretical analyses into wave energy dynamics [29][30][31], the 1980s and the early 2000s saw many bold attempts regarding the design and construction of WEC prototypes around the world. The capacities of those major WECs and their prototypes ranged from tens of kW to several hundreds of kW, as shown in Table 2.…”

“…The performance of WECs can be greatly influenced by the wave condition at the test sites. For example, the performance of oscillating water columns and oscillating body systems, whose optimum capture occurs when the WEC is at resonance with the incoming waves [31][32][33][34][35], will be much lower if the WECs are tested in a site where most of the wave properties are outside the WEC's resonance bandwidth.…”