Australias Alternative Energy Program Rises With The Waves

Not only is Australia a large land mass that constitutes an entire country and continent

, it is also a rather large island with miles and miles of shoreline. It is off of Australias abundant coastline that the renewable energy of wave power is harnessed. Since agreeing to the Kyoto Protocol, Australia has made great strides in the advancement of wave power.

The Oceanlinx is a wave energy converter device developed in Australia. Founded by Dr. Tom Denniss in 1997, Oceanlinx technology has grown rapidly since that time due to numerous investments from energy firms as well as a $1.21 million research and development grant from the federal government in 2004. The grant was part of Australias Wave Energy Optimisation program, established to help meet the guidelines set by the Kyoto Protocol.

Oceanlinx is testing a wave power system at the New South Wales suburb of Port Kembla. A noted seaport, its location on a particularly wavy portion of the ocean makes it an ideal site to utilize the renewable energy created by water movement. It is hoped that the Oceanlinx will provide electricity and water to the homes, steel mills, and shipping companies found in Port Kembla, providing evidence of the efficient energy production of wave power to the rest of Australia.

In addition to electricity generation, drinking water can be provided by wave power. As buoys rise and fall, driving pistons up and down with their motion, water is forced through lines that power electrical turbines. Some of this water is directed to desalination plants, producing clean drinking water straight from the largest source of H2O on the planet; the ocean!

Based on this application of wave power as well as the efficient performance of the Oceanlinx device, Carnegie Corporations seek to develop three of these wave power projects in Australia. They wish to tether buoys to pistons submerged 15 to 50 meters below the waters surface. Carnegies desire is to establish a 50 MW demonstration in Western Australia by the end of 2013. Another 50 MW wave power project is set for development near the town of Albany in Western Australia, jointly funded by Carnegie Corporations and the state government.

As numerous countries around the world look to alternative energies for electricity and other power generation, Australia has taken the lead in wave power. Renewable energy that powers homes and provides drinking water only makes sense in a country surrounded by ocean.

by: Robert Eckard

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