Wave Swell Energy has developed a world-leading proprietary technology which converts energy in ocean waves into clean, emissions-free electricity. This electricity can be transmitted to shore and into the grid or used to power an onboard or shoreline-located desalination facility.
The company is currently developing a 200kW energy project, intended to be installed in the ocean off the east coast of King Island. The project’s aim is to demonstrate the ability of the technology to produce electrical energy at a cost comparable to new coal-fired power plants, when installed at large-scale.
Inventor of the initial technology and first International Ocean Energy Hall of Fame inductee Dr. Tom Denniss spoke to AOEG.
“This will be the only island grid in the world to have three different renewables supplying energy to a local community. Because of the consistency of waves on this island, ocean energy will directly and tangibly benefit the grid by smoothing out troughs and peaks of supply.”
When asked about the future for the project and technology, Dr. Denniss stated: “At scale, the technology is now truly commercially viable. Therefore, we envisage rolling it out to large-scale as quickly as possible via the move from a single unit to a large multi-unit project, thereby significantly reducing the cost of energy. This goal can be fast-tracked through interim government support, such as a feed-in tariff, allowing the development gap to be filled more rapidly and facilitating a quicker uptake of the technology both in Australia and worldwide.”
The project is supported by Hydro Tasmania – Australia’s leading clean energy business. Simon van der Aa, Hydro Tasmania’s Portfolio Manager for the Bass Strait Islands, shared the following statement:
“Hydro Tasmania is Australia’s largest generator of renewable energy and we’re champions for a sustainable future. That’s why we’re supporting Wave Swell as they test the integration of this innovative new generation technology with our system on King Island. The flexibility provided by our King Island Advanced Hybrid Power Station makes for a good proving ground for this project, and the wave generator will complement existing wind and solar generation to further demonstrate the advantages in diversifying the sources of renewable energy and how these can be integrated in the grid.”
Visit Wave Swell Energy to learn more about their role in improving the performance and commercial viability of wave energy technologies.