US 7886680 B2 / Feb 15, 2011

Mooring of arrays of buoy-like WECs

For reducing the number of components required for mooring (by means of three, 120.degree. spaced apart mooring lines) multiple floating wave energy converters (WECs), a group of six WECs is disposed in a hexagonal pattern with each WEC being disposed at a corner of the hexagon. The WECs are connected to one another by mooring lines extending along sides of the hexagon, each WEC thereby being connected by two, 120.degree. spaced apart mooring lines and with each WEC serving as a mooring point for each of its two adjacent neighbors. A third mooring line for each WEC, spaced 120.degree. from the other two mooring lines, is connected to an auxiliary surface buoy and thence to an anchor.