Energies 2015, 8(10), 11575-11591; https://doi.org/10.3390/en81011575
Estimation of Downtime and of Missed Energy Associated with a Wave Energy Converter by the Equivalent Power Storm Model
1
Natural Ocean Engineering Laboratory (NOEL), “Mediterranea” University of Reggio Calabria, Loc. Feo di Vito, Reggio Calabria 89122, Italy
2
Wavenergy.it srl. Via F. Baracca Trav. De Salvo 8/A, Reggio Calabria 89123, Italy
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editor: John Ringwood
Received: 1 September 2015 / Revised: 7 October 2015 / Accepted: 10 October 2015 / Published: 15 October 2015
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tools and Techniques for Economic Delivery of Ocean Energy)
Abstract
The design of any wave energy converter involves the determination of relevant statistical data on the wave energy resource oriented to the evaluation of the structural reliability and energy performance of the device. Currently, limited discussions concern the estimation of parameters connected to the energy performance of a device. Thus, this paper proposes a methodology for determining average downtime and average missed energy, which is the energy that is not harvested because of device deactivations during severe sea storms. These quantities are fundamental for evaluating the expected inactivity of a device during a year or during its lifetime and are relevant for assessing the effectiveness of a device working at a certain site. For this purpose, the equivalent power storm method is used for their derivation, starting from concepts pertaining to long-term statistical analysis. The paper shows that the proposed solutions provide reliable estimations via comparison with results obtained by processing long wave data. View Full-Text
Figure 1
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Arena, F.; Laface, V.; Malara, G.; Romolo, A. Estimation of Downtime and of Missed Energy Associated with a Wave Energy Converter by the Equivalent Power Storm Model. Energies 2015, 8, 11575-11591.
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