Wave Dragon is an overtopping type offshore wave energy converter. The paper deals with the first phase of a full-scale 1.5 MW demonstrator project at the test centre DanWEC, Hanstholm.
Wave Dragons will be produced in four sizes, optimized for 1.5 to 12 MW of capacity. The economic optimal size depends on the wave climate at the deployment site. Expected deployment sites will typically be 5 to 25 km offshore and at water depths above 30 m to exploit high power wave resources. The development of a 1.5 MW Wave Dragon demonstrator is based on experiences from 20,000 test hours with a smaller prototype. The prototype was the world’s first grid connected floating wave energy device. It was steel-built and quite alike a 200 tons ship with regard to construction method. The 3 times up-scaled demonstrator device will be a reinforced concrete construction with a design lifetime of 50 years. It weighs around 6,500 tons and is equipped with 8 hydro-turbine generators, each rated at 185 kW. The paper covers part of the development of the certified 1.5 MW Wave Dragon design and the following feasibility study of the Wave Dragon DanWEC project.
