Australia based Energetech will soon begin supplying clean electric power from Australia’s first commercial wave-generated power station located 100 yards off shore in the beach community of Wallongong.
Wave power generation, a developing technology, holds tremendous potential for clean energy production. An added benefit of the Energetech technology is its capability to create both clean electrical power and drinking water. The Wallongong station will eventually supply power to up to 500 nearby homes and can desalinate water, a precious commodity in drought ravaged Australia, for almost an equal number.
Ocean waves provide the densest and most constant of all natural power sources. In the Engergetech prototype, electricity is generated when waves wash into a funnel facing the ocean, driving air through a pipe and into a turbine.
When fully operational the plant will create 500 kw of clean energy while producing 2,000 litres of desalinated water per day.
Plans are to build 10 additional plants off the south Australian coast. The ultimate hope for the technology is to produce power at less than the cost of fossil fuel powered generation without the accompanying emissions and with the tremendous added benefit of the creation of drinking water for coastal communities.
Another innovative company in the wave energy area is AW-Energy, a Finnish company that is developing a different approch to wave power with its WaveRoller system. WaveRoller captures the kinetic energy created subsurface by the motion of waves, using a specially designed bottom-mounted moving ‘wing’. The captured energy is converted to electricity using traditional technologies. The beauty of this system is that the device remains sub-surface with no above surface structure. The technology is currently in being tested and expanded in the Gulf of Finland.
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I’d like to see more initiatives like this take place. Kudos for them.
[...] Australia’s first wave power plant is up and ready to go. Seems they are using it for desalinating water and producing energy. [...]
This kind of energy really works and should be put into action all around the world.
I had to research this for my school assignment, and had no idea what it was. This has made me understand what a wavepower electricity plant is. I think it is a great idea! Clean water, desalinated = more drinking water! This is exactly what we need at a time like this.(Drought) Great Idea
We could use Energetech”s technology on the North Shore of Oahu in non-surfing areas as our waves are strong. However, a 500Kw generator would not suffice. We would have to use a number of these devices.
We would like to know the lifetime expectancy of such equipment as well as installation and maintenence costs. We need some type of Kwh value placed upon the system for its life expectancy.
Most of our electric generation in Hawaii is from burning imported oil. Any cost effective method of cutting down on the number of oil tankers would be good.
“The ultimate hope for the technology is to produce power at less than the cost of fossil fuel powered generation.”
We hope this will be possible and are hoping to see reports on test results for further consideration of this technology.
adrianakau@aol.com
I’ve been in touch with the company about the status of their Rhode Island test installation. They do respond to emails. Hawaii would seem to be an ideal environment for wave power.
We already have wave testing in Kaneohe Bay on Oahu with a buoy generator. What we need is the installation of a Pelamis wave farm as off the coast of Portugal to convert wave energy and also free current turbine farms that could be used where current is strong.
There is no lack of ocean power available but we have to go past the testing stage and take action.
adrianakau@aol.com
i think that wave power is a good idea because its renewable unlike fuel, oil, coal and so on. if people did not think of good ideas like this and we just used all the non renwable usage up the world would just die and so would the human race. so people thinking of the brillant ideas should be reconised and get a medal. thanks for reading my comment.