Wave energy converters as offshore wind farm guardians: a pathway to resilient ocean systems

Abstract

Maximizing the durability and reliability of offshore wind farms is essential for the clean energy transition. In this work, we demonstrate how wave energy converter (WEC) farms can shelter offshore wind farms from cyclic wave loading, resulting in significant reductions in turbine fatigue damage. Using experimentally validated hydrodynamic models, we show that WEC arrays can reduce wave-induced fatigue damage on the turbines by up to 25%, potentially lowering required monopile diameters and extending turbine lifetimes. This damage reduction propagates to the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) of the wind farm, targeting cost reductions in nearly 50% of the total system costs. Additionally, WEC farms can benefit from this co-location by sharing siting costs, operation and maintenance teams, and mooring and transmission cables with the offshore wind farm. This work supports resilient, cost-effective offshore renewables for global deployment.

Figures (8)

• Figure 1: Depiction of the two common WEC architectures evaluated in this study. Relevant dimension are provided in the drawing, and images of the physical prototypes are shown next to the drawing for context.
• Figure 2: Wave height computed by the spectral balance solver in lee of a 20-body (a) OSWEC array and (b) PA WEC array. Red markers indicate WEC devices. (c) and (d) show the percent wave height reduction at five y-distances from the arrays.
• Figure 3: Depiction of wave-induced fatigue damage reduction at representative turbines in the South Fork wind farm due to the WEC farm. (a) shows results for when the start of the wind farm is 0.25 nm away from the WEC farm, (b) shows a distance of 1.0 nm, and (c) shows a distance of 2.0 nm.
• Figure 4: (a) Graphical representation of hydrodynamic (near-field) BEM model interacting with the far-field spectral action model. (b) Four-body array configurations for oscillating surge WECs (top) and heaving point absorbers (bottom) that are meshed in the BEM solver.
• Figure 5: Device response amplitude operators for (a) an isolated heaving point absorber WEC, (b) an isolated oscillating surge WEC, (c) a 4-body point absorber WEC array, (d) a 4-body oscillating surge WEC array. The names in the legends correspond to physical devices from experimentation, shown in Fig. \ref{['fig:arrayconfigs']}. Shading around the lines indicates the 95% confidence interval bounds on the data.