Study of a hydraulic system converting energy from sea waves near the coast

Abstract

This paper proposes a system able to recover energy from sea waves. The system is made up essentially of a floating structure, connected to a piston pump. The pump, constrained to move vertically under the action of the waves, pushes water into a reservoir maintained at constant pressure, from which it flows in a Pelton turbine. A methodology was developed for the preliminary sizing of the proposed system. This methodology takes the height of the waves and the pressure of the reservoir as reference parameters and then provides the main geometric data of the machines. A case study developed in the present work, demonstrates the possibility of designing miniaturized components of the system, able anyway to provide acceptable energy output with contained installation costs.