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A full-scale prototype of a wave power plant has been installed off the Swedish west coast and the overall wave energy converter concept has been verified. Initial results have been collected and significant insights discovered. Energy absorption dependency on load as well as output voltage and power is demonstrated. It is shown that great overload capability of the directly driven linear generator is critical, and indicated that, for resistive loads, optimal load does not vary with wave climate. Future grid supplying energy production would necessitate parks of wave power plants in order to reduce power fluctuations.

The ability of a wave energy converter to capture the energy of ocean waves has been studied in offshore experiments. This study covers 50 days during which the converter was subjected to ocean waves over a wide range of frequencies and amplitudes as well as three different electrical loads. The results present the wave energy converter??s energy absorption as a function of significant wave height, energy period and electrical load. It is shown that the power generated overall continues to increase with wave amplitude, whereas the relative absorption decreases towards the highest periods and amplitudes. The absorption reached a maximum of approximately 24% with the used combination of buoy, generator and electrical load. Absorption to cover for iron and mechanical losses has not been included. A brief study of the nature of the electromagnetic damping force has also been included in the study. The wave energy converter is of the technology that is being researched at Uppsala University and experimented on off the Swedish west coast at the Lysekil wave energy research site.

The first offshore prototype of a wave energy converter system has been launched off the Swedish west coast. The concept is based on a point absorber directly coupled to a linear generator located on the ocean floor. The wave energy converter is part of a research project that will study the electric system of ten units forming a small farm of wave power plants as they are linked and connected to an electric grid. A full scale farm will consist of a large number of interconnected units. The chosen direct drive system reduces the mechanical complexity of the converter but has repercussions on the electric system. The output from the generator will vary with the speed of the point absorber, leading to large fluctuations of power on the second scale. This has implications on both the individual generator and on the system as a whole. The hydrodynamic behavior of the point absorber depends, to a large extent, on the damping of the generator. The damping, in turn, can be remotely controlled by changing the load resistance. It has previously been shown that this has a large influence on the power absorbed by the wave energy converter. This paper investigates the peak power, the translator speed, and the variance of the power at different sea states and for different levels of damping. The peak power has an impact on the design of the generator and the required ability, for a single unit, to handle electric overloads. The momentum of the translator is directly proportional to its speed. The speed is thus important for the design of the end stop. The variance of the power of one unit will have an impact on the farm system behavior. The study is based on two and a half months of experimental measurements on the prototype wave energy converter and a wave measurement buoy. The aim is to analyze whether load control strategies may influence the dimensioning criteria for the electric system and the generator. The results are compared to previously investigated relationships between the absorbed mean power and the load resistance as a function of sea state. In the study, it was found that the maximum power is approximately proportional to the average power, while the maximum translator speed and standard deviation decrease as the damping factor is increased.

The present paper presents results from a wave energy conversion that is based on a direct drive linear generator. The linear generator is placed on the seabed and connected to a buoy via a rope. Thereby, the natural wave motion is transferred to the translator by the buoy motion. When using direct drive generators, voltage and current output will have varying frequency and varying amplitude and the power must be converted before a grid connection. The electrical system is therefore an important part to study in the complete conversion system from wave energy to grid connected power. This paper will bring up the first steps in the conversion: rectification and filtration of the power. Both simulation studies and offshore experiments have been made. The results indicate that this kind of system works in a satisfactory way and a smooth DC power can be achieved with one linear generator.

This paper presents experimental results from a wave energy converter (WEC) that is based on a linear generator connected to a rectifier and filter components. The converter-filter system is installed onshore, while the linear wave generator operates offshore a few kilometers from the Swedish west coast. The power from the generator has been rectified with a diode bridge and then filtered using a capacitive filter. Performance of the whole conversion system was studied using resistive loads connected across the filter. The aim was to investigate the operational characteristics of the generator while supplying a nonlinear load. By changing the value of the resistive component of the load, the speed of the translator can be changed and so also the damping of the generator. The power absorbed by the generator was studied at different sea states as well. The observations presented in this paper could be beneficial for the design of efficient wave energy conversion systems.

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™ 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.

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.

This paper analyzes temperature measurements acquired in the offshore operation of a wave energy converter array. The three directly driven wave energy converters have linear generators and are connected to a marine substation placed on the seabed. The highly irregular individual linear generator voltages are rectified and added on a common dc-link and inverted to 50 Hz to facilitate future grid-connection. The electrical power is transmitted to shore and converted to heat in a measuring station. The first results of temperature measurements on substation components and on the stator of one of the linear generators are presented based on operation in linear and in nonlinear damping. The results indicate that there might be some convective heat transfer in the substation vessel. If high power levels are extracted from the waves, this has to be considered when placing components in the substation vessel in order to avoid heating from neighboring components. The results also indicate that the temperature increase in the linear generator stator is very small. Failure due to excessive heating of the stator winding polyvinyl chloride cable insulation is unlikely to occur even in very energetic sea states. Should this conclusion be incorrect, the thermal conductivity between the stator and the hull of the wave energy converter could be enhanced. Another suggested alteration is to lower the resistive losses by reducing the linear generator current density.

In this study, the design, construction, deployment and operation of an offshore underwater substation is discussed. The seabed placed substation interconnects three linear generator wave energy converters (WECs) at the Swedish Lysekil wave energy research site. The power from the WECs fluctuates because of their direct-driven topology. The generator voltage has varying electrical frequency and amplitude. To reduce the fluctuations, the individual voltages of the WECs are rectified and the power is added on a common DC-bus in the substation. The voltage is inverted, transformed and power is transmitted to an on-shore resistive load. The substation was retrieved on two occasions since the deployment in the spring of 2009. The functionality of the substation is validated by comparing voltage and current wave forms from Simulink with measured results from laboratory experiments. In addition, a sample of results from real offshore operation is illustrated and discussed. With a proportional-integral-derivative (PID)-regulator in the inverter control, the small fluctuations in the DC-bus voltage could be minimised. However, this would reduce the energy storage capability of the DC-link smoothing capacitors.

This paper describes an electrical system layout for a wave power plant connecting linear generators to the grid. The electrical power out from the wave energy converters must be converted before they can be connected to the grid. The conversion is carried out in marine substations that will be placed on the seabed.

The paper presents experimental power data from a wave energy converter that has been in operation at the Lysekil research site since March 2006. Moreover, results and analyses from experiments and simulations from tests with the generator connected to a rectifier and filter are presented. A simulation is made to show the difference between having the generator connected to a linear load and a nonlinear load, which would be the case when the generator is connected to the grid.