Carnegie Wave Energy (ASX:CWE) are Catching Waves and Turning Them Into Electricity

By Amy Yee, New York Times, April 22nd 2015

Off the coast of Western Australia, three big buoys floating beneath the ocean’s surface look like giant jellyfish tethered to the seafloor. The steel machines, 36 feet wide, are buffeted by the powerful waves of the Indian Ocean. By harnessing the constant motion of the waves, the buoys generate about 5 percent of the electricity used at a nearby military base on Garden Island.

The buoys are a pilot project of Carnegie Wave Energy (ASX:CWE), a company based in Perth and listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. In late February, the buoys started supplying 240 kilowatts each to the electricity grid at HMAS Stirling, Australia’s largest navel base.  They also help run a desalination plant that transforms seawater into about one-third of the base’s fresh water supply.

Renewable energy is not an urgent matter in Australia, given the country’s plentiful supplies of fossil fuels, particularly coal. But Carnegie’s demonstration project is ultimately aimed at island nations that must import expensive fuel for electricity, as well as military bases looking to bolster energy and water security.

“Island nations are all looking to be sustainable,” said Michael E. Ottaviano, chief executive of Carnegie. Wave energy could be a good fit, especially for islands where tropical clouds impede solar power or where  wind turbines disturb the aesthetics of tourist destinations.

Given the ocean’s power, wave energy seems a promising source of renewable energy. Over the last two decades, companies have developed various designs, including a snakelike apparatus with hinged joints from Pelamis Wave Power, a pioneering Scottish company that connected wave power to the grid in 2004; a tubelike device from Ocean Power Technologies of New Jersey and bobbing buoys from AWS Ocean Energy of Scotland.

But wave energy remains largely experimental. The equipment is easily damaged by relentless waves and strong storms. And there is scarcity of large investments needed to refine and test designs. In a blow to the industry, Pelamis collapsed late last year after it failed to secure adequate financing. In addition, Scottish wave energy company Aquamarine Power in December announced plans to cut jobs.

“The biggest challenge is funding,” said Mr. Ottaviano. “Any power generation product is capital-intensive. Anytime you want to test an idea, it costs millions of dollars.” Energy technologies that are mainstream today, like nuclear power, were developed for commercial use with government research and support, he said.

Carnegie’s pilot project, named Ceto 5 after the Greek sea goddess, Ceto, began with more than $30 million financing from investors and the Australian government, including $13.1 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency and $7.3 million from the Low Emissions Energy Development Program for Western Australia. Carnegie has been working on its Ceto technology since 1999, with cumulative investment of more than $100 million.

To battle the elements that make wave energy so difficult to produce, this technology differs from most other wave energy designs. Its buoys sit three to six feet underwater, rather than float on the surface. This  helps shield the equipment from pounding waves. Mr. Ottaviano, who grew up in Perth, near the ocean, said, “Everyone knows when you see a wave the intuitive reaction is to dive underneath.”

The constant rocking of the ocean drives hydraulic pumps that push seawater and other liquids through a pipe to a power plant nearly two miles away on Garden Island. There, the high-pressure water turns standard hydroelectric turbines, which power a generator.

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