Wave farm on track

Plans for a commercial wave energy farm in Albany are on track and will begin ramping up next year, according to Australia’s leading wave technology company, Carnegie Wave Energy.

Carnegie hold an exploration licence for an area of ocean off Sandpatch near the wind farm, and site development manager Tim Sawyer said the site was still at the top of the list to develop after their current project to power the HMAS Stirling naval base on Garden Island, near Rockingham.

“We are right on the verge to provide electricity for the Department of Defence, with construction of the $32 million project beginning in the coming weeks,” Mr Sawyer said.

“In terms of development of the Albany site, 2014-2015 are still the right dates for that project; we will start to ramp up activities early next year with design work, approvals and funding.

“It is a valuable site without a doubt and we hope to see distinct progress next year.”

The comments come after WA’s first ever 40-megawatt tidal power station was approved in Derby.

Mr Sawyer said wave energy had much more potential than tidal energy, with Albany the best site for a wave energy farm in the country, and possibly the world.

“We did an awful lot of work in Albany over two or three years of concepts and feasibility work.

“What we realised is it wasn’t suitable as a demonstration site, Albany is as far as we’re concerned one of the best sites in the world without a doubt, not somewhere we play with the technology but somewhere you go to harness it.”

Mr Sawyer said Australia was leading the way in developing wave power technology, with at least three new wave energy projects going into the water across the country in the next 18 months.

Albany Mayor Dennis Wellington said another clean and green energy resource in Albany would be welcomed if it met environmental guidelines.

“The continuation of Albany’s current harnessing of renewable energy from the wind farm would be good,” he said.

However, Mr Wellington said other sources of power like the Bunbury-to-Albany gas pipeline and a proposed diesel-powered peak energy supply plant near the Sandalwood Factory were still needed.

“You can’t do anything in any area without power, that is something we have long struggled with in Albany,” he said.

“Anything that improves our power resources, as long as it meets environmental guidelines, would be welcomed.”