Invented by Sydney-based company, Energetech, the device has just been named one of the top 10 technologies in the world for 2006 by the International Academy of Science.
Plans have already been made for a group of 10 power stations to be commissioned off the Victorian coast if the prototype is a success.
Floating 100 metres off a beach near Wollongong, the station developed by Energetech will supply around 500kW of clean power each day to the local grid as well as 100,000 litres of desalinated water.
Energetech chief financial officer John Bell said the station’s generation capacity was roughly the same as a wind turbine, but with the added advantage of the desalination options and the “constant and predictable” energy supplied by waves.
He said zero emission wave generation would inevitably become a common electricity source in the near future.
“It’s quite likely (wave generation) will be very successful. The combination of electricity generation and desalination is very attractive. You can track waves up to a month in advance,” he told EMN.
“Compared with many other renewable sources, wave generation is a much richer resource.”
Electricity from the station will be sold to Integral Energy to power local houses.
Bell said the station was a trial for the installation of 10 wave generators off the coast of Portland, Victoria, They will have larger turbines and a daily generation capacity of 1.5MW each, with the electricity to be sold to Power Core as well as the potential to desalinate 3ML of water a day.
If all goes according to plan construction will begin in June and be completed by December. They will be built to withstand a 1 in 100 year wave, according to Bell.
