A theoretical assessment of energy efficiency of wave tower as an oscillating wave surge converter

Recently, wave power has found a place among commercially viable renewables, but its costly manufacturing and installation costs make it less competitive than other renewable energy systems. Therefore, wave energy converter (WEC) developer firms must enhance their systems and reduce their expenses. Oscillating wave surge converter systems, such as Wave Roller and Oyster WEC, have high efficiency but require a large area of effect to receive sufficient wave energy and deliver high efficiency. They are incapable of extracting energy when the incident wave's orientation changes because they can only absorb waves traveling in one direction. To enhance this system, the Wave Tower wave surge converter concept has been developed. In this paper, a comparison of Wave Tower and Wave Roller systems reveals that the Wave Tower system with a 30 m2 area of effect has an advantage over the bottom -fixed Wave Roller system with a 180 m2 area of effect in mild conditions and delivers 79 percent more power, but its operation is restricted in conditions with high wave heights and periods. The potential power was computed numerically by solving the wave tower's dynamic motion for various wave masses and angular frequencies. In conclusion, the available power was expressed as a function of the incident wave's properties and the tower's mass, area of effect, and angular frequency. At a wave period of 8 s and a wave height of 1 m, this innovative wave surge converter produces 107 kW of output power, which is greater than other oscillating wave energy converters.