The 300-kilowatt wave energy converter is four-storeys high and 40 metres wide.
International services company GHD was contracted by Energetech to help develop the project’s instrumentation and control systems.
“Designing the instrumentation and control systems was one of the key challenges of this project,” said GHD project manager, May Ngui.
“The inventor’s idea had to be documented in a way that allowed it to be constructed. We performed that role, working closely with the client to bring the concept to reality.”
If all goes to plan, Australia's first commercial wave energy generator could be fully installed and open for business by the end of the first quarter of 2007, Energetech recently told EnergyReview.net.
This will be the first wave energy project to use a parabolic wall to focus wave energy and the first to use the new Energetech turbine.
In the plant, a parabolic wall focuses the incoming waves and a turbine at the heart of the system transforms energy from ducted airflow, converted by the vertical water motion inside an oscillating wave chamber, into uni-directional rotational power.
The turbine controls for the wave energy converter require many instruments and actuators that are operated remotely and help to deliver the efficient production of power from a highly unpredictable source, GHD said.
