This document constitutes Deliverable ‘D2.8 Specification of the Baseline Configurations’ of the LiftWEC project. LiftWEC is a collaborative research project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 851885. It is the intention of the project consortium that the LiftWEC project culminates in the identification of one or more promising configurations of a Wave Energy Converter operating through the use of a rotating hydrofoil that generates lift as the primary interaction with the incident waves. This report defines the specifications of the Baseline Configurations that will be analysed in Phase 3 (Detailed investigations into LiftWEC configurations) of the project.

The process of the identification of the Baseline Configurations is described, which was centred around a two-day workshop with active involvement and contributions from all members of the consortium, together with a member of the LiftWEC Advisory Board who was able to attend the second day. Prior to the workshop all work packages and members of the consortium had identified the promising and unpromising Preliminary Configurations, desirable tangible features, and key design findings. These contributions were presented at the workshop and reviewed by the other workshop attendees. The Preliminary Configurations were also assessed using the LiftWEC Evaluation Tool described and refined in deliverables D2.2, D2.4, D2.5 and D2.6.

All of this information was used to generate a set of prospective Baseline Configurations. These prospective Baseline Configurations were generated in small groups in the workshop, where the membership of each group was chosen to provide a diverse range of perspectives. These prospective Baseline Configurations were then presented in a Plenary session and discussed, refined, and augmented until four Baseline Configurations were identified by consensus. The justification for the selection of the four Baseline Configurations, which were the basis of the consensus, are provided in this report. The consensus was that, except for some small refinements, the hydrofoil rotor and its control would be essentially the same for all configurations with the difference being in the implementation of the reaction and station-keeping requirements. The four Baseline Configurations cover the full range of promising implementations, which are considered to be

1.      a tower,

2.      a tension leg platform (TLP),

3.      a semi-submersible, and

4.      a spar buoy.

More detailed specifications of these four Baseline Configurations, including drawings, were produced following the workshop based on the discussions at the workshop and further input from consortium members. These specifications have been formatted as a Basis of Design for each Baseline Configuration that is consistent across all of the configurations. The agreed Baseline Configuration Basis of Designs are included as appendices of this document.