FACTORS AFFECTING THE LOW ACHIEVEMENT OF UTILIZATION EFFICIENCY OF WAVE ENERGY FOR ELECTRIC POWER PLANT WITH TAPERED CHANNEL TECHNOLOGY

Ocean waves is one of the alternative sources of renewable energy that widely available on earth. Attempt on conversion of wave energy into electric power has a lot to do, but it is still constrained by the low achievement of utilization efficiency. This paper presents the results of physical model research regarding the factors affecting the efficiency achievement of the design of Baron Wave Power Plant with Tapered Channel (Tapchan) technology. The model investigation was conducted on 15 m x 20 m size of three dimensional wave basins in The Applied Hydraulics Laboratory Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering Gadjah Mada University. Tapchan model was built based on the design drawings and field data survey in the geometric scale of 1:25. The models were simulated with 3 kinds of wave direction (175 o ; 191 o and 210 o ) where the designed center line of tapered channel at the direction of 178 o . Nine variations of wave height and period in 3 kinds of water depth (LWL, MSL, and HWL) were used to simulate the models. The results indicate that the low performance efficiency was only about 1% -14% or an average of 7% and much influenced by main factors, namely the collector wall geometric, the alignment of channel direction with the incoming wave direction and the magnitude of wave deformations at the bay.