Pelamis wave power station in Scotland
There’s a lot of fuss over solar and wind power in Australia lately, but they’re not the only alternatives to coal-fired energy here. We’ve also got a nice, long coastline, and I reckon we should also be looking into the potential of wave power.
The basic idea behind wave power is that wind blowing across the surface of the ocean transfers energy to the water, whipping it up into waves. A device placed on or in the water can capture that energy and transfer it to a generator which will create electricity. There’s several different ways to do this, most of which are on trial around the world, in places as diverse as Scotland, Portugal, Namibia, the USA and Australia. If you’ve got a technical frame of mind, you might like to check out the Wikipedia entry on wave power to see the formulas and diagrams.
A report by Carnegie Corporation, a WA wave power company, estimates that Australia has a near-shore wave energy potential of 170,000 mega watts, which is about four times the national installed power generation capacity. Even if we only used 10% of that potential, it’d supply 35 per cent of Australia’s current power demand. I think that’s well worth investigating!
Unlike wind and sunlight, the waves are in action 24 hours a day, which can help us with supplying a base load of power to our homes and businesses. Plus, like any energy industry, wave power would create up to 15,000 new jobs in administration, manufacturing and maintenence work. Check out the WWF’s Power to Change report to see maps of where wave power could work in Australia, plus more details on the jobs it would create.
The drawbacks to wave power today are that a) it’s expensive, because it’s experimental, and b) the waves are so full of energy they can damage the equipment if there’s a storm! But that’s what the research is for, to find ways of making it cost-effective and long-term.
There’s a few businesses in Australia putting wave power to the test right now. Carnegie Corporation is working near Esperance in WA, while Oceanlinx is operating in Port Kembla NSW and Portland VIC. ABC’s Catalyst show has a video with Alan Burns, one of the people working on wave power, which shows how the CETO devices work in the water (click on the video links just underneath the article title).
I find wave power very exciting - it’s got huge potential and is so close to being successful on a commercial scale. Combined with wind and solar power, as well as energy-efficiency, I’m sure it will be part of our clean energy future.
This whole concept excites me greatly as well! I hadn’t kept up to date so all of the above is great news!
That Oceanlinx site is right near where I live. It’s a great concept, and I hope it can find a commercial market.
Wave Power is probably in the first steps of it’s life cycle but surely has great potential. Not only the coastline in Australia is huge but think about all the opportunities in the rest of the world!! I hope that people will develop this technique!