Antinuclear

Wave Energy for Australia – the Island Continent

recent technological innovations may make that coastline as attractive to renewable energy investors as to sunbathers.

A new wave energy project is being planned for development off the coast of Garden Island in Western Australia, near Perth

Australia Developing Wave Power, Oil Price.com by John Daly, 02 January 2012 Consider. Australia’s 2,966,140 square-mile landmass is ringed by 16,006 miles of coastline. Most of the population is concentrated along the southeast coast of the country, in an arc running from Brisbane to Adelaide along the “boomerang coast.”

Virtually all of Australia’s large cities – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, and Adelaide – are on the coast. About 80 percent of Australia’s population lives within 30 miles of the coast.

So, where do the Aussies get their energy to support their affluent lifestyles?

Australia is one of the most coal-dependent countries in the world and
coal and natural gas, along with oil-based products, are currently the
primary sources of Australian energy usage.

But recent technological innovations may make that coastline as
attractive to renewable energy investors as sunbathers.

A new wave energy project is being planned for development off the
coast of Garden Island in Western Australia, near Perth.  Carnegie
Wave Energy is putting the final design touches on its 5 megawatt
“Perth Project,” which will use Carnegie’s CETO wave energy
technology. After Carnegie Wave Energy recently announced that it had
completed the “basis of detailed design” for the project, it received
a $145,000 grant from the Western Australian government to proceed
with the project’s final design stage.

The CETO system, named after a Greek sea goddess, differs in a number
of ways from other wave power systems underdevelopment
worldwide……Carnegie Wave Energy is developing a similar project in
Ireland and is in discussions on several other proposed projects,
including Bermuda and British Columbia.

Carnegie Wave Energy says that the Perth Project has no significant
impact on marine life and will be constructed out of the way of
popular surfing areas. There is some irony in the fact that while
Australia for the foreseeable future will remain a major coal
exporter, its government’s commitments to reducing GGE mean that it is
most unlikely that any Australian state will sign on to constructing
new coal fired plants, and natural gas and oil imports are a net drain
on their economies.
….http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Tidal-Energy/Australia-Developing-Wave-Power.html

January 5, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | energy, Western Australia