Antinuclear

Australian Renewable Energy Agency backed award winning wave energy project

The structure, a one-megawatt “wave energy converter” — the most powerful such unit in the world and capable of powering about 1000 households — is being built by Oceanlinx to demonstrate technology developed by the small Sydney company.

The device will be towed by a tugboat to Port MacDonnell, near Mount Gambier, South Australia, lowered on to the seabed and connected to the grid by subsea cable by the end of the year.

Oceanlinx chief executive and managing director Ali Baghaei and colleagues won the minerals and energy category of The Australian Innovation Challenge awards last year with the technology, called Greenwave. The awards are run by The Australian in association with Shell, with the support of federal government statutory body Innovation Australia.

Ocean waves are a largely untapped energy source, but Mr Baghaei, an engineer, said this renewable energy technology could challenge wind power and fossil fuels within a few years.

Even before completion of the Port MacDonnell demonstration project, funded by the federal government’s Australian Renewable Energy Agency and private backers, Greenwave has caused a stir worldwide. Mr Baghaei said the company was in talks with governments and businesses in Asia, Europe and the US on deployment of the technology under licence. “We feel we are one of the leaders in this sector,” he said. “We’re under a lot of pressure to ensure we don’t take our eyes off the target.”

He said winning the award was helping in the commercialisation of Greenwave.

“It was important to help raise our profile,” he said. “It has told the world a good, genuine, factual story; here is a small company in Sydney in the southern hemisphere, and yet we have the capability to be at the forefront of the sector globally. It has created some credentials and credibility.”

An opening in the unit lets water in and out. Water inside the device’s chamber rises and falls in sync with passing waves, acting as a piston on the air column above it and turning a turbine to generate electricity.

Inspired by the Kiama blowhole on the NSW south coast, mathematician Tom Denniss founded Oceanlinx, Mr Baghaei said. Its engineers and scientists have spent more than 15 years refining the technology.

The Australian Innovation Challenge, which offers a total of $70,000 in prize money, has seven professional categories, ranging from ICT to manufacturing and hi-tech design. An eighth category, backyard innovation, is open to the public. Entries close today.

September 23, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, energy, South Australia