Permanent wave unit planned for Garden Island

An alternative energy company carrying out offshore testing of its wave energy project plans to establish a permanent unit off Garden Island, which will generate electricity or provide desalinated water for HMAS Stirling.

At present the company, Carnegie Wave Energy, has a commercial-scale CETO wave energy unit located about 25m beneath the ocean between Garden Island and Five Fathom Bank.

Picture: Brand MHR Gary Gray and Carnegie site development manager Tim Sawyer discuss the company’s plans.

The company i s in the process of applying to the Federal Government to get funding from its emerging renewables program, which recently was topped up by $40 million to $100 million.

Brand MHR Gary Gray said he was excited about the trials the company had completed off Garden Island.

‘‘The engineers and designers at Carnegie are now analysing the data collected while the (wave) unit was in the water,’’ he said.

‘‘The data will be used to finalise the design for the site, which will see the unit permanently installed off Garden Island and providing energy into the electricity grid.

‘‘This unit and power conversion system will be used o demonstrate the potential of Carnegie’s technology to potential customers throughout the world.’’

Carnegie managing director Michael Ottaviano said to generatepower the CETO wave unit was anchored to the ocean floor, where a submerged buoy was tethered to a seabed pump unit.

Passing waves move the buoy, driving the pumps, which in turn pressurise water that is delivered ashore via a pipeline.

The high-pressure water can then be used to drive hydroelectric turbines, generating zero-emission electricity.

Dr Ottaviano said such water could also be used to supply a reverse-osmosis desalination plant, replacing greenhouse gas-emitting electrically driven pumps.