The Conceptual Design work stream is intended to ensure the success of the whole-system approach taken to LiftWEC’s development through; (1) the generation of specific knowledge required to answer outstanding design questions, and (2) collation of learning from all other work streams to inform best practice design in an interdisciplinary manner.

A three-day workshop was held to gather knowledge relating to the design of possible LiftWEC systems. At the culmination of this workshop, 17 separate potential configurations were proposed for further investigation and critical assessment. It was found that each configuration could be broken down into a set of inter-operable sub-systems. It was therefore decided that further work should focus on developing the understanding of the design requirements and implications of decisions made relating to the intended function of each particular sub-system, as opposed to constraining work to focus on the specific mechanical implementations contained within the 17 configurations.

In addition, a set of concept design and evaluation software tools have also been produced. These currently exist in pre-release Beta forms. The concept design tools are intended to permit a first-pass assessment of the hydrodynamics of a given LiftWEC system using first-principle physical representations. The concept evaluation tool is intended to provide a means of ranking LiftWEC configuration and subsystems to identify those with greatest commercial potential. Details of the intended functionality of these tools is presented in LiftWEC Deliverable D2.4 “Specification of Design & Evaluation Support Tools”.