Project WESA (Wave Energy for a Sustainable Archipelago) – a Single Heaving Buoy Wave Energy Converter Operating and Surviving Ice Interaction in the Baltic Sea
: a Single Heaving Buoy Wave Energy Converter Operating and Surviving Ice Interaction in the Baltic Sea
: Erland Strömstedt, Andrej Savin, Hanna Heino, Kasimir Antbrams, Kalle Haikonen, Thomas Götschl
: Peter Frigaard, Jens Peter Kofoed, AbuBakr S. Bahaj, Lars Bergdahl, Alain Clément , Daniel Conley, Antonio F. O. Falcão, Cameron MacLeod Johnstone Lucia Margheritini , Ian Masters, António José Sarmento, Diego Vicinanza
: Technical Committee of the European Wave and Tidal Energy Conference
: 2013
: Proceedings of the 10th European Wave and Tidal Conference (EWTEC)
: 2309-1983
: http://www.ewtec.org/(external)
Project WESA (Wave Energy for a Sustainable
Archipelago) is an international scientific research project aimed
at developing and investigating the performance of a wave energy
converter system designed for operation in an archipelago
environment with ice interference during winter conditions.
Project WESA is also a cross-border collaboration effort, and part
of the EU funded Central Baltic INTERREG IV A programme1,
with an additional objective to raise awareness of wave power as
a potential renewable energy source for the Central Baltic region.
The paper introduces the wave power test site at Hammarudda,
developed by project WESA, which is situated approx. 15 km west
of the city Mariehamn on the island of Åland in the Baltic Sea. The
paper describes the wave energy converter (WEC) system, the
measuring station, the installed measurement and surveillance
systems, the communication and control system, a bit about how
the experiments were conducted and in particular the theories
behind the buoy designs and the experimental buoys used for
operation in ice. The paper also discusses other aspects important
for development of wave power plants in the Baltic Sea, such as
environmental aspects and the potential for utilization.
The paper presents results from power generation in no-ice
conditions, force measurements, and camera surveillance during
operation in two different seasons of icy winter conditions. The
experiments show that the WEC and buoy system can handle iceinteraction
of the kind encountered at the test site during the
winter seasons of 2011/2012 and 2012/2013, which corresponds to
withstanding drifting ice fields of varying thicknesses and shape,
and ice with a thermodynamically generated thickness of up to 15
cm, without encountering problems.
