Cost Optimization of Mooring Solutions for Large Floating Wave Energy Converters

Jonas Bjerg Thomsen, Francesco Ferri, Jens Peter Kofoed and Kevin Black
Additional contact information
Jonas Bjerg Thomsen: Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Thomas Manns Vej 23, 9220 Aalborg ∅st , Denmark
Francesco Ferri: Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Thomas Manns Vej 23, 9220 Aalborg ∅st , Denmark
Jens Peter Kofoed: Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University, Thomas Manns Vej 23, 9220 Aalborg ∅st , Denmark
Kevin Black: Tension Technology International Ltd., 69 Parkway, Eastbourne, East Sussex BN20 9DZ, UK

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-23

Abstract: The increasing desire for using renewable energy sources throughout the world has resulted in a considerable amount of research into and development of concepts for wave energy converters. By now, many different concepts exist, but still, the wave energy sector is not at a stage that is considered commercial yet, primarily due to the relatively high cost of energy. A considerable amount of the wave energy converters are floating structures, which consequently need mooring systems in order to ensure station keeping. Despite being a well-known concept, mooring in wave energy application has proven to be expensive and has a high rate of failure. Therefore, there is a need for further improvement, investigation into new concepts and sophistication of design procedures. This study uses four Danish wave energy converters, all considered as large floating structures, to investigate a methodology in order to find an inexpensive and reliable mooring solution for each device. The study uses a surrogate-based optimization routine in order to find a feasible solution in only a limited number of evaluations and a constructed cost database for determination of the mooring cost. Based on the outcome, the mooring parameters influencing the cost are identified and the optimum solution determined.

Keywords: mooring; station keeping; wave energy; optimization; meta-model; surrogate model; cost; wave energy converters (WEC) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/1/159/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/11/1/159/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:11:y:2018:i:1:p:159-:d:126002

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().