Invented by West Australian businessman and Hardman Resources founder Alan Burns, the CETO technology uses an underwater pump driven by the waves to deliver high-pressure seawater through a pipe to the shore.

The seawater is then used to drive a turbine to generate electricity or passed through a reverse osmosis desalinisation unit to produce freshwater.

One unit can produce about 1 million litres of freshwater a day and can generate 180kW of clean electricity.

Carnegies and Seapower Pacific co-funded the development of the CETO technology, which last week won a $5 million Renewable Energy Development Initiative (REDI) grant.

Prime Minister John Howard announced the grant in addition to a new $75 million funding program for emerging renewable energy technologies, with the funds available through competitive grants.

"Wave energy, such as that being developed by Carnegie Corporation in Perth, is a leading innovative renewable energy technology. It is also exciting because it has great potential for emissions-free desalination," said Howard.

CETO inventor Alan Burns said the grant would "contribute significantly" to the completion of the final aspects of CETO, which the company previously stated would require $6-8 million over the coming 12-18 months.

"Recent results from in-sea CETO trials have confirmed its effectiveness and design, and have cleared the way for deployment of the first commercial design units off the coast of Fremantle," he said.

"We're on track for an array of commercial-design CETO units to be operating by the end of 2008 in addition to deeper water, full-scale CETO III tests and commercial roll-out in 2009."