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Wave energy is a widely available but still largely unexploited energy source, which has not yet reached full commercial development. A common design for a wave energy converter is called a point absorber (or buoy), which either floats on the surface or just below the surface of the water. Since a single buoy can only capture a limited amount of energy, large-scale wave energy production requires the deployment of buoys in large numbers called arrays. However, the efficiency of these arrays is affected by highly complex constructive and destructive intra-buoy interactions. We tackle the multi-objective variant of the buoy placement problem: we are taking into account the highly complex interactions of the buoys, while optimising critical design aspects: the energy yield, the necessary area, and the cable length needed to connect all buoys – while considering realistic wave conditions for the first time, i.e., a …