Abstract
The United States’ Department of Energy’s Wave Energy Prize (the Prize) contest encouraged the development of innovative deep-water wave energy technologies that at least doubled device performance above the 2014 state-of-the-art. The prize developed the ACE and HPQ metrics as a proxy for LCOE that provide an equitable comparison of low Technology Readiness Level (TRL) Wave Energy Converter (WEC) concepts. The ACE calculation was based on technical submissions that included paper studies and simulations, as well as, measured energy capture. To account for real world performance and loading, an extensive testing program was included in the Prize and factors were calculated that scaled the ACE metric to the HPQ. This paper describes the Prize testing program and the analysis of the measurements. Non-dimensionalized and anonymous results are presented. Finally, a section of lessons learned is provided to disseminate the experience gained in the intensive test program.