Australian Company Begins Wave-Energy Trial

Wave power is set to be trialled in the Western Australian port city of Bunbury, using renewable energy technology to convert undersea currents to electricity

The trial will see 30 floating buoys tethered together and supported by weights that will be filled with water and dropped on the sea floor.

The buoys will drift up and down with the current to create compressed air that is then converted to power.

Stonehenge Metals, the WA-based company behind the project, hopes to produce 45 kilowatts of energy from the buoys.

Managing director Bruce Lane said Bunbury was an ideal place for the demonstration.

"The wave resource off Bunbury is very good, it's exposed to the Southern Ocean which is the most powerful body of water on the planet, we believe," he said.

In August, the company tested a single device off the coast of Coogee, south of Fremantle, and were pleased with the results.

Mr Lane said if the Bunbury trial was also successful, the company would look at introducing its product to the commercial market.

"The physics and the maths behind this are encouraging, but we need to prove it," he said.

"We're looking at Bunbury as a test site.

"It would be really nice to be able to supply power to the Bunbury port and the alumina refinery but that may be hard to achieve in the short-term.

"We need to do this testing so we have confidence that it's worth going to the next step and building a commercial pilot."

Power generation for islands

The company plans to market the technology as a plausible way to generate electricity for small island communities.

"There's about 60 small island nations in the world and they use a significant amount of electricity, most which is generated from diesel," Mr Lane said.

"We think that's quite a big market rather than grid connected energy to power Perth or Bunbury."

He said Rottnest Island, off the coast of Perth, could be an ideal place for a wave farm.

"There's no question there's good wave resources there and there's obviously some renewable energy already on Rottnest," he said.

"It would be a good thing to do but we haven't approached anybody to do that at this point.

"As a test location, it may not be ideal but certainly as a deployment location it would certainly be an interesting opportunity."

Wave farm could produce drinking water

Mr Lane said there could also be an opportunity for the wave farm to aid in the production of fresh water.

"The device creates shaft power from the movement of the waves and we can use that as a pumping mechanism," he said.

"We could pump water either directly from the devices or using a compressed air driven pump, then you can drive a reverse osmosis desalination unit.

"There's obvious benefits to remote and regional communities and islands with that."

Mr Lane said with enough buoys, the technology could match the power produced through diesel generation.

"The waves don't go away at night and even when the wind stops blowing, you still get that swell rolling in every ocean in the world," he said.

"If we can get it right, there's an inherent ability to deliver a consistent power source for any electrical use."

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• Power Generation
• Cogeneration
• Electricity Pricing
• Hydroelectric Energy