To investigate suitable mooring arrangements and associated problems with the station keeping of moored wave energy devices a large scale mooring test facility (South Western Mooring Test Facility – SWMTF) in realistic sea condition is under construction. The test facility will be launched and operated by associated PRIMaRE and CORES members from the University of Exeter based at the Cornwall Campus, UK. The main objective of the test
facility is to obtain load and response data due to real wind, wave and current conditions that have an appropriate scale of ½ to a realistic installation location. The instrumentations used within the facility have to be able to provide reliable data as a result of the environmental loading that enables the study of static and dynamic loadings and motion characteristics. Loading and motion measurements will be collected using a generic buoy, and the data will be available in real time. Environmental sea and wind conditions will be collected using ADCPs and weather stations. This paper will describe in detail the objectives of the mooring test facility, the technical details, the site characteristics and the technical and policy related issues that have had to be overcome prior to construction. Furthermore the long term aspiration of the group will be discussed, that is focusing on research to improve station keeping systems for marine renewable energy devices.
