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On March 13^th, 2006, the Division of Electricity at Uppsala University deployed its first wave energy converter, L1, in the ocean southwest of Lysekil. L1 consisted of a buoy at the surface, connected through a line to a linear generator on the seabed. Since the deployment, continuous investigations of how L1 works in the waves have been conducted, and several additional wave energy converters have been deployed.

This thesis is based on ten publications, which focus on different aspects of the interaction between wave, buoy, and generator. In order to evaluate different measurement systems, the motion of the buoy was measured optically and using accelerometers, and compared to measurements of the motion of the movable part of the generator - the translator. These measurements were found to correlate well. Simulations of buoy and translator motion were found to match the measured values.

The variation of performance of L1 with changing water levels, wave heights, and spectral shapes was also investigated. Performance is here defined as the ratio of absorbed power to incoming power. It was found that the performance decreases for large wave heights. This is in accordance with the theoretical predictions, since the area for which the stator and the translator overlap decreases for large translator motions. Shifting water levels were predicted to have the same effect, but this could not be seen as clearly.

The width of the wave energy spectrum has been proposed by some as a factor that also affects the performance of a wave energy converter, for a set wave height and period. Therefore the relation between performance and several different parameters for spectral width was investigated. It was found that some of the parameters were in fact correlated to performance, but that the correlation was not very strong.

As a background on ocean measurements in wave energy, a thorough literature review was conducted. It turns out that the Lysekil project is one of quite few projects that have published descriptions of on-site wave energy measurements.

The first wave power patent was filed in 1799. Since then, hundreds of ideas for extraction of energy from ocean waves have surfaced. In the process of developing a concept, it is important to learn from previous successes and failures, and this is not least important when moving into the ocean. In this paper, a review has been made with the purpose of finding wave power projects that have made ocean trials, and that also have reported what has been measured during the trials, and how it has been measured.

In relation to how many projects have done work on wave power, surprisingly few have reported on such measurements. There can be many reasons for this, but one is likely the great difficulties in working with experiments in an ocean environment. Many of the projects have reported on sensor failures, unforeseen events, and other general problems in making measurements at sea.

The most common site measurement found in this review was wave height. Such measurements was almost universal, although the technologies used differed somewhat. The most common device measurements were electric voltages and/or currents and system pressures (air and water). Device motion and mooring forces were also commonly measured. The motion measurements differed the most between the projects, and many varying methods were used, such as accelerometers, wire sensors, GPS systems, optical systems and echo sounders.

For a complete understanding of a wave energy conversion device, it is important to know how the proposed device moves in the water, how this motion can be measured, and to what extent the motion can be predicted or simulated. The magnitude and character of the motion has impacts on engineering issues and optimization of control parameters, as well as the theoretical understanding of the system. This paper presents real sea measurements of buoy motion and translator motion fora wave energy system using a linear generator. Buoy motion has been measured using two different systems: a land-based optical system and a buoy-based accelerometer system. The data have been compared to simulations from a Simulink model for the entire system. The two real sea measurements of buoy motion have been found to correlate well in the vertical direction, where the measured range of motion and the standard deviation of the position distributions differed with 3 and 4 cm, respectively. The difference in the horizontal direction ismore substantial. The main reason for this is that the buoy rotation about its axis of symmetry was not measured. However, used together the two systems give a good understanding of buoy motion. In a first comparison, the simulations show good agreement with the measured motion for both translator and buoy.

An offshore wave energy converter (WEC) was successfully launched at the Swedish west coast in the middle of March 2006. The WEC is based on a permanent magnet linear generator located on the sea floor driven by a point absorber. A measuring station has been installed on a nearby island where all measurements and experiments on the WEC have been carried out. The output voltage from the generator fluctuates both in amplitude and frequency and must therefore be converted to enable grid connection. In order to study the voltage conversion, the measuring station was fitted with a six pulse diode rectifier and a capacitive filter during the autumn of 2006. The object of this paper is to present a detailed description of the Lysekil research site. Special attention will be given to the power absorption by the generator when it is connected to a nonlinear load.

This paper investigates the sensitivity of a wave power system to variations in still water levels and significant wave heights. The system consists of a floating point absorber connected to a linear generator on the seabed. Changing still water levels are expected to affect the power absorption, since they will displace the equilibrium position for the generator translator. Similarly, changing significant wave heights will affect the rate at which the translator leaves the stator. Both these effects will in some cases result in a smaller active area of the stator. A theoretical expression to describe this effect is derived, and compared to measured experimental values for the wave energy converter at the Lysekil research site. During the time of measurements, the still water levels at the site were in the range of [-0.70 m, +0.46 m], and the significant wave heights in the range of [0 m, 2.7 m]. The experimental values exhibit characteristics similar to those of the theoretical expression, especially with changing significant wave heights.

The ocean are largely an untapped source of energy. However, compared to other energies, power fluctuations for ocean waves are small over longer periods of time. This paper present a grid-oriented approach to electricity production from ocean waves, utilizing a minimal amount of mechanical components.

Since 2002, the Division for Electricity at Uppsala University has been running the Lysekil project. The project is an attempt to construct and evaluate a technology for extracting electrical energy from the motion of ocean waves. The idea is to let this up-and-down motion drive a linear generator. A buoy moves thus in the waves, and is connected through a line to the generator at the sea floor. Three such wave energy converters, L1, L2, and L3, and a marine substation have been deployed in the ocean southwest of Lysekil on the Swedish west coast, at the Lysekil research site. Measuring equipment has also been deployed, together with a number of buoys for studying environmental impact. A measuring station has been installed on the nearby island of Hermanö, and an observation tower has been built on the islet of Klammerskär, south of the research site. This licentiate thesis describes the author's work on studying wave buoy motion and is based on five scientific papers, covering mainly two areas. Firstly, changes in water levels, and thereby changes in the equilibrium point for the buoy and generator, have been related to the ability of L1 to absorb energy. The results indicate that there is a correlation between water levels and energy absorption for L1 for the studied time period. When the water level deviates from average, the absorption values decrease. This is not unexpected, since the linear generator has a finite stroke. The effect is however noticeable primarily for water level deviations of more than 25 cm, and is only visible for those cases where either wave height or water level deviation is large. Secondly, the above mentioned observation tower has been designed and built. The tower is equipped with a network camera covering the research site, a wireless communication system and an energy system. The first acquired images of the buoy connected to L1, taken during the summer of 2008, have been analyzed, and buoy motion data has been extracted. The observation system has worked well, and the data on buoy motion (vertical motion in the range of +/-0.5 m correlates fairly well to measurements of significant wave height for the period (Hm0=0.82 m). A comparison with voltage data from the generator also indicates that the system has captured the dominating buoy motion. However, the system suffers from poor temporal resolution (about one image per second), and has not yet been synchronized with the other measurement systems at the site. Addressing these two problems is of high priority in the future.

Anobservation system has been set up on a small isleton the Swedish west coast. The purpose of the systemis to monitor the wave buoys in The Lysekil Project.The project is an attempt to harvest wave energy usinglinear generators and point absorbing buoys. The observation system isself-sufficient and uses a network camera to follow the buoymotions. The first results from the camera, which has beenoperating since July 2008, have been analyzed to examine themotion tracking capabilities of the system. The motion tracking wouldwork as a complement to the other measurements that arebeing done on the buoy. The method for extracting motiondata from the two-dimensional pictures is presented. The results aregraphs of translative buoy motion in two dimensions, and rotationalmotion about two different axes. The vertical buoy motion forthe studied sequence is in the range of ±0.5 m.