Performance assessment of the CECO wave energy converter: Water depth influence

Abstract

CECO is a recently proposed Wave Energy Converter (WEC), which harnesses both the kinetic and potential energy of waves. Currently, CECO is at the third level of technology readiness (TRL3). In this context, maximising the wave energy absorption under a wide range of wave conditions is crucial for the future development of the device. Therefore, this work aims to explore in detail the main parameters (operating water depth and wave conditions) that influence CECO's performance in terms of Captured Energy (CE) and Captured Energy Efficiency (CEEff). For this purpose, a panel-based model, which was calibrated from previous physical model tests was used to construct the CECO matrices of absorbed wave power at different operating water depths. The wave conditions of the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula (2005-2014), which were modelled using SWAN, were used as case study. Overall, CECO offers promising results for CE and CEEff, reaching values up to 600 MWh and 45%, respectively. In addition, it was found that CECO's power absorption reaches its maximum for values of peak wave periods (T-p) ranging from 10 to 13 s and the fact that the operating water depth does not impact significantly the performance of the device.