Wave energy production in Italian offshore: Preliminary design of a point absorber with tubular linear generator

Abstract

The paper presents the preliminary design and modelling of a point absorber wave energy converter consisting of a floating buoy connected to a tubular linear generator fixed at the seabed. The behaviour of the device is described by the equation of motion of a single body system restricted to vertical motion. The model of the coupled buoy-generator system is used to simulate the behaviour of the wave energy converter under regular waves of different heights and periods. Then the electricity production of an hypothetical installation off the Alghero coast is estimated. The results show that the device capacity factor at the study site is around 15%. This is a very promising value considering that the studied device has not been specifically optimized for the Alghero wave climate. The work suggests that the presented technology could be very attractive for the Italian offshore.Index Terms-Italian offshore, linear tubular generator, point absorber, wave energy.

Sea wave generation: Generator arrays combined with VOC converter for efficient energy conversion in Italian Seas

“…Starting by the model largely discussed in previous work [6], [8] it is possible configure the system in order to obtain an array of WEC, as shown in fig. 1 The layout of the array of generator is shown in fig.…”

“…In this article starting from the numerical modeling of a single WEC [6], [8], it is compared the behavior of the device in array with the single configuration starting from the point of view of the electronic power converter. The device chosen is composed by a floating body (a buoy diameter of 4m) and a linear generator (nominal power of 10kW) [8]- [10].…”

Reliability Assessment of Water Hydraulic-Drive Wave-Energy Converters

“…Since the wave scale and the scale of floater motions is small relative to the wave length, the hydrodynamic analysis could be performed by using the linearized water wave theory. In fact, hydrodynamic analysis under linear wave conditions has been studied in other similar WEC devices [29,31,32]. The motion equations of the floater under the condition that the harmonic waves frequency is ω can be obtained as follows:…”

Comparison among passive and active rectifier for seawave energy production

“…The proposed system is based on a point absorber, associated with a tubular electrical generator [8], [9] as widely described in previous works. In the following some brief remarks of the main characteristic will be done.…”

“…tubular seem to have the characteristic to be very simple to built, install and manage but on other hand it has an output waveform that goes to zero as a result of the periodic motion of the waves. In this work will be analyzed the behavior of a Power take off, already dimensioned in earlier work [8], [9], [11], [12], connected to both active and passive conversion structures in order to determine the point of force and the drawbacks.Especially conversion efficiency is increased if will be considered an array of generators. In this case, the waveforms produced can be shifted among them mechanically and then cover the voltage holes due to the conversion of energy of the single generator.…”