Abstract
The direct-driven linear generator wave power plant being developed at the Swedish Centre for Renewable Electric Energy Conversion at Uppsala University was launched in the spring of 2006 and has during more than two months been tested in real ocean wave conditions. This first prototype was built mainly to test the overall concept in terms of survivability and energy extraction. The full scale prototype Wave Energy Converter has been connected to a 2.9 km long sea cable and, during 2 months, power has been delivered to a resistive load placed on the island Gullholmen situated at the Swedish west coast. The load resistance is adjustable which has allowed the testing of power absorption for different resistive loads. By European standards, the wave climate on the test site is poor, and during the test period the mean energy flux was slightly less than 1.4 kW/m.
The output voltage shows great variation in amplitude and frequency. It is indicated that the optimum resistive load to achieve high power absorption is independent on wave climate. The relative power absorption for this configuration is shown to be higher in the lower range of the wave spectrum.