Wave energy technology has been growing in the past years as one of the most promising one within the renewable energy sector. Many Wave Energy Converters, usually to be deployed offshore, are based on the concept of a floating body capable of extracting energy through its motion against a reference in one or more degrees of freedom. As many other station-keeping offshore structures, these devices generally require a mooring system to maintain their reference position within a specified range but, unlike the former, they are also quite sensitive to the incident wave direction. Due to this requirement, mooring systems of offshore Wave Energy Converters have often to allow the device itself to weathervane to the wave direction.
This paper describes the design process of the Multicatenary Spread Mooring System for a new offshore Wave Energy Converter, namely the OCEANTEC WEC. It will present and discuss the results of wave tank tests using a reduced-scale model and the subsequent extrapolation and adjustment of the mooring system elements for sea trials of a quarter scale prototype to be located in the Northern Coast of Spain. Experimental results show how the correct choice of the mooring is a critical factor in the design and assessment of a wave power device.
