BACKGROUND

In the prior art, buoyant wave energy converters (“converters”) are typically deployed and moored individually, even when deployed at locations adjacent to one another, e.g. as in a “farm” of such converters. And, in the prior art, typically each converter is tethered to an electrical cable that descends to the seafloor where it is spliced into a subsea cable, into which the electrical cables of other converters in the farm are also spliced. At the very least, this means that a length of electrical cable equal to the depth of the water on which each converter floats is used to electrically connect each converter to the shared subsea power cable.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Disclosed is a novel system and architecture including an interconnected farm of buoyant wave energy converters, and/or other buoyant structures or devices (e.g., floating wind turbines), that share a common electrical grid positioned adjacent to the surface of the body of water on which the buoyant wave energy converters float. Furthermore, in a preferred embodiment, some of the grid's conductors (i.e. conducting wires) are of a relatively heavy gauge and/or a relatively high electrical rating or capacity, while others are of relatively lesser gauges and/or relatively lesser electrical ratings or capacities, so as to optimize the grid with respect to the consumption of resources and cost.

This disclosure, as well as the discussion regarding same, is made in reference to farms of ocean wave energy converters. However, the scope of this disclosure applies with equal force and equal benefit to any set, collection, group, and/or farm, of any type and/or combination of buoyant structure, machine, device, vessel, floating wind turbine, and/or ocean energy device.

This disclosure, as well as the discussion regarding same, is made in reference to farms of wave energy converters on or at the surface of an ocean. However, the scope of this disclosure applies with equal force and equal benefit to wave energy converters and/or other devices on or at the surface of an inland sea, a lake, and/or any other body of water or fluid.

The disclosed novel farm and/or farm architecture involves the creation of an electrical grid, through which power generated by the devices in a farm may be combined and transmitted. However, unlike the prior art, the electrical grid of the current disclosure is formed through the electrical interconnection of devices in a farm through electrical connections that remain, in whole or at least in part, adjacent to the surface of the body of water on which the devices float. In an embodiment, a plurality of converters of the network have no direct or immediate electrical interface with a subsea power cable (i.e. a cable on or under the seafloor), but instead transmit electricity to other converters in a daisy-chained fashion.

Such a “surface grid” results in a significant saving of electrical cable, and the materials of which such cable is fabricated, through an elimination of a segment of cable connecting each individual farm device to an electrical cable at the seafloor. For example, in a farm of 100 devices, floating in water with an approximate or average depth of 400 feet, no less than 40,000 feet of electrical cable is required to connect each device to a subsea power cable located on the seafloor. The current disclosure saves most of this cable, instead requiring at most a single 400-foot-long cable to transmit the farm's power to a subsea power cable.

The current disclosure encourages the use of electrical cables of differing gauges within a farm's surface grid. Relatively heavy, i.e. thick, gauges can be used to establish a “backbone” for the grid through which flow relatively large amounts of electrical energy, e.g. currents. Relatively light, e.g. thin, gauges can be used to connect peripheral devices to the backbone. Intermediate gauges can be used to transmit relatively small amounts of electrical energy between relatively smaller groups of devices and the backbone. Throughout this disclosure, it is to be understood that “heavy gauge” and “light gauge” electrical cables can refer to electrical cables of relatively higher and lower electrical ratings respectively, irrespective of actual physical gauge.

The current disclosure includes the design, fabrication, deployment, and interconnection of wave energy converters (and/or other buoyant devices) which are equipped with, and/or incorporate, electrical connectors and/or connection points arrayed in a standardized manner, pattern, distribution, and/or orientation, on a surface of the converter. These standardized, commodity, “cookie-cutter” converters can then be used as building blocks from which distributed farms of such converters can be assembled, and through which an electrical grid can be established and/or created within such a farm, through the addition, connection, and/or attachment, of electrical cables, including those possessing terminal electrical connectors compatible with the electrical connectors on each converter and/or those possessing switches or other apparatus configured to enable a wave energy converter to serve as an electrical terminus.

Some or all of the interconnections and/or sockets and/or plugs and/or connection interfaces needed to electrically connect, and/or interconnect, the electrical cables within the farm are able to be preinstalled within, and/or prefabricated as a part of, the standardized wave energy converters. Supporting electronics, monitoring sensors, and/or other electronic and/or electrical components, modules, and/or systems required of, and/or supportive of, the creation, operation, monitoring, diagnosing, and/or repair, of an electrical grid within a farm of wave energy converters may likewise be pre-installed within, and/or prefabricated as a part of, the standardized wave energy converters.

The wave energy converters of the present disclosure may be electrically interconnected with, through, and/or by, modular and/or standardized electrical cables, preferably containing, incorporating, connected to, and/or terminated by, electrical connectors that are complementary to, and/or compatible with, at least one or some of the electrical connectors on at least some of the converters.

The current disclosure discloses an electrical grid, and its formation through the connection of pre-fabricated elements (e.g. converters with standardized electrical connectors in consistent relative locations and orientations, electrical cables with compatible standardized electrical connectors, etc.), wherein much, if not all, of the grid is positioned adjacent to the surface of a body of water.

While the current disclosure is best applied to a farm of converters (and/or other buoyant devices) that are tethered together by and through shared mooring cables, most, if not all, of which are also positioned adjacent to the surface of a body of water, it is also applicable and of benefit to collections of individually moored converters and/or devices, and such applications and/or embodiments are included within the scope of the present disclosure.

In many of the figures, the mooring cables are not shown so that the electrical cables, their relative gauges, their orientations, etc., will be more clearly illustrated. However, with respect to those figures illustrating farms of the present disclosure, the converters and/or devices are moored. In some embodiments, some or all of the converters are moored, at least in part, through lateral mooring cables, adjacent to the surface of the body of water on which the farm floats, which flexibly and/or elastically connect together adjacent converters, such that the entire farm of converters is moored, at least in part, through the positionally stabilizing forces and/or constraints imposed on the positions of the converters by the surface mooring connectors. In other embodiments, some or all of the converters are individually moored, e.g. through their attachment and/or connection to mooring cables that connect them to one or more anchors. In some embodiments, some of the converters are moored by being operatively connected to anchors. In some embodiments, some of the converters are “moored” (i.e. positionally stabilized) using positional stabilizing thrusters such as water propellers or air propellers (e.g., ducted fans) located on or at the converters. In some embodiments in which positional stabilizing thrusters are used, none of the converters in the farm is operatively connected to an anchor.

Farms of the present disclosure, which contain and/or incorporate electrical grids composed of converters and electrical cables positioned adjacent to the surface of the body of water on which the converters float, may incorporate standardized converters that conform to two or more different designs, numbers and/or types of electrical connectors, varieties of gauges of electrical cables and/or connectors, etc.

Farms of the present disclosure may contain mixtures of buoyant devices and devices, nodes, and/or power-consumers, positioned on, and/or affixed to, land, including land above the water (i.e., shore) and land below the water (i.e., the seafloor).

All variations in numbers, gauges, orientations, types, designs, lengths, and/or other embodiment-specific variations of the general inventive designs, structures, systems, and/or methods disclosed herein are included within the scope of the present disclosure, and will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

