DANWEC - Empirical Analysis of the Wave Climate at the Danish Wave Energy Centre

The wave energy sector is at a development stage where real-sea testing is imperative. Dedicated test sites for wave energy converters (WECs) [1-6] are being established around Europe to facilitate sea trials. The Danish Wave Energy Centre (DanWEC) test site at Hanstholm has been the preferred test site for several Danish WECs. In 2013 DanWEC has received Greenlab funding from the EUDP programme to establish the site including more detailed information on its wave climate and bathymetry and seabed conditions. The project “Resource Assessment, Forecasts and WECs O&M strategies at DanWEC and beyond” has been initiated to deliver detailed information of the environmental conditions of DanWEC and to review implementation of O&M procedures, which will ultimately improve WEC’s operation and reduce WEC’s costs. The work so far has been concentrated on establishing the base for gaining detailed information on the DanWEC wave and current climate. In this paper an analysis of the wave climate of the DanWEC test site will be presented. This includes a description of the data quality control and filtration for analysis and the observations and data analysis. Relevant characteristics of the test site, as for example scatter diagram (Hm0, Tz) will be analysed and wave power distribution given. Based on the data gathered so far a preliminary analysis of extreme events at the DanWEC test site will be presented. Deployment, control strategies and O&M strategies of wave energy converters are sensitive to the wave and current conditions and weather windows to perform the suitable maintenance and corrections during an experimental phase in real ocean conditions are essential information also in the planning phase of the experiments.