Regards, Mike B)
>From "The West Australian", March 21, 2005
by MICHAEL WEIR
Renewable energy group Pacific Hydro and Perth-based venture capital company Carnegie Corporation will take a big step today in their development of a groundbreaking wave power generator with the launch of the first prototype.
Once launched, the $2.5 million CETO prototype, built at Henderson, will be moved into position in about seven metres of water close to shore at Fremantle for extensive trials.
The CETO unit is the first wave power generator to sit on the seabed, unlike other floating or semi-submersible versions of the technology.
The unit was invented by WA businessman Alan Burns, the chairman of Carnegie and oil and gas company Hardman Resources.
After an ownership restructuring last month aimed at raising $25 million from European investors, the wave power unit is now owned by London-listed Renewable Energy Holdings (REH), which has Carnegie and Pacific Hydro as major shareholders.
The CETO unit sits on the seabed and is like a giant foot pump that uses the power and movement of waves to force highly pressurised seawater to shore through a small pipe. Once on shore the pressurised water can be used to drive a turbine generator, or it can pushed through a reverse osmosis filter to produce fresh water.
The prototype has a 5m tower for access and communications during the testing phase, but subsequent commercial units will not have the tower and be in deeper water.
The first part of the testing phase will be to pump seawater to shore at 7000kpa to determine the size of the electricity turbine, which is expected to be up to 100 kilowatts.
Wave energy is becoming increasingly popular in the growing world-wide push for renewable energy projects.
Seven companies globally have installed or are installing wave energy systems. About 4.3 megawatts of electricity is being generated from wave power, of which about half is grid connected, mainly in Scotland and Portugal.
REH has a five-year plan to refine the CETO unit and enter the commercial phase of having banks of units on the sea floor producing electricity and fresh water at competitive costs.
The European Union has set a target to have 22 per cent of electricity generated from renewable sources by 2010 and earlier this year started an emission trading scheme.
The WA Government last month set a target of having 6 per cent of renewable energy feeding to the main South-West grid by 2010.
The energy in waves is estimated to be 100 times denser than other forms of renewable energy such as wind or solar.
The World Energy Council says about two terawatts, which is twice the world's current electricity production, could be produced from the oceans using wave power. http://thewest.com.au/20050321/business/tw-business-home-sto130736.html
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