Abstract
In this paper the influence of having different sizes of wave energy converters in the same park is evaluated by the extension of a customizable tool based on a genetic algorithm. Two different cost function are used in the optimization scheme and their results compared. The method has been applied to simultaneous optimization of some important design variables of a wave energy farm, such as the geometry of the buoys and the damping coefficient of the electric generator. Spatial layout optimization has also been performed with hybrids parks, i.e. arrays consisting of point absorbers of different dimensions. It is shown that the choice of the cost function has a great impact on the results of the optimization and that a slightly larger power production can be achieved by deploying devices of different sizes in a hybrid park