Old Wave -- New Power -- What Support? (October 5, 2010)

On August 18 TFW reported on Wave Power Along Australia’s Southern Coast Could Generate 50% of the Nation's Current Requirements. The research was reported in the peer reviewed Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy, one of the American Institute of Physics stable, by M. A. Hemer and D. A. Griffin from the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research based in Hobart.

They detail their study of "The wave energy resource along Australia’s Southern margin". and in their overall conclusion they note: "The Australian Government seeks to produce 45 000 GW h/yr of additional renewable energy before 2020," and go on to state, "The Southern margin of the Australian continent provides an abundant resource of wave energy, which can contribute to this target. Typical annual mean wave energy fluxes along the Southern margin are approximately 50 kW/m (432 GW h/yr/km) . The total required renewable energy quota could be achieved if 10% of the available wave energy resource over a 1000 km section of the Southern Australian margin were converted to electricity." But they also caution that a period of 10 years or more, should be regarded as the next step to adequately define the wave climate for wave energy resource assessments for a complete assessment of the suitability of the wave energy resource at specific locations. Those data are essential to allow "the required model [to] be applied with a single domain, so that modelling artefacts observed in the present study are removed".

Now a report by ABC news highlights comments by several companies which leave it unclear as to whether or not the companies are or are not being unfairly treated in their requests for funding to assist in their attempts to further technologies to exploit wave energy.

Oceanlinx's chief technology officer Tom Dennis says the lack of support means Australia is failing to take advantage of the resource.
"The coasts that border the Southern Ocean are pretty much the best in the world for wave resource and of course with a resource like that it makes it that much easier to be commercially viable, too, if initial funding to get things built is available. It's a little bit of a mismatch. Australia has got a great resource, but not necessarily a good program for fostering these technologies... "We almost have to rely on overseas money if it's not forthcoming here because there's no way we can get these technologies fully commercialised without actually putting full scale projects in the water, and those projects cost money and we really need to implement them where that money is available."

The company states it: "is a leading international company in the field of wave energy conversion. The company has developed proprietary technology for extracting energy from ocean waves and converting that energy into electricity, or using it to provide desalinated potable grade water from sea water.
Oceanlinx has designed and deployed wave energy systems since 1997."

The Perth based company, Carnegie Wave Power, has just signed a three-year agreement with Ireland's Sustainable Energy Authority to test its technology over there.  The collaboration deal is with Ireland's national energy authority to jointly develop wave energy projects at specific locations.

A company spokesman says they would like to develop their technology domestically, but the Australian Government is not providing a lot of incentives.

From the published accounts it is unclear just what is being proposed, e.g. in the light of the cautionary "a period of 10 years or more, should be regarded as the next step to adequately define the wave climate... for a complete assessment of the suitability of the wave energy resource at specific locations".

Have these firms proposed an overall strategy for sight analysis and location as well as appropriate development of suitable technologies for proposed situations?

And a statement by a spokeswoman for Federal Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson saying funding under the Renewable Energy Demonstration Program is based on merit and the advice of the renewable energy committee isn't exactly helpful.

If Hemer and Griffin have got it right how about getting an appropriate consortium together to develop a 10yr proposal.