Griffin in deal to test wave power

West Australian
Saturday 24/5/2008 Page: 16

Ric Stowe's Griffin Group wants to further expand its energy empire with a wave power station off Perth's northern suburbs. Griffin Energy has struck a joint development agreement with international expert Ocean Power Technologies to build a wave power station capable of producing 10 megawatts but with the potential for 100MW. It would use OPT's technology, which uses bobbing floats on buoys to generate power. To generate 10Mw, enough to power 10,000 homes, 40 buoys would be placed over 10ha about 5km offshore in water 50-60m deep.

Griffin energy boss, Wayne Trumble, refused to release costings or an exact location for what he said was only a potential research and development plant at this stage. However, OPT did a feasibility study near Yanchep and has published figures that by 2011 it hoped to bring the capital cost for its technology down to $2.2 million a megawatt. The [Vest Australian understands costs for a small, trial plant would be much higher.

Griffin and OPT were shortlisted to provide up to 5MW from unproved renewable energy technology for the Water Corporation's planned desalination plant near Binningup. The preferred tenderer should be announced by October. The partnership has also applied to the State Government's $36.5 million low emissions energy development fund and plans to apply for funding under the newly announced $500 million Federal renewable energy assistance plan.

Mr Trumble said the Binningup contract or another agreement with one of several potential industrial customers would be needed for the project to go ahead. OPT director Gilbert George said he did not expect environmental approvals to be a major hurdle given experience at the company's nine other projects around the world, including in the US, Spain and France. The EPA would be asked within months to set a level of assessment for any WA plant.

Griffin and OPT are not the only ones considering wave power off WA. The Carnegie Corporation hopes to announce a site for its first commercial wave power station within months after years of testing of its unique ocean-floor based technology off Fremantle. It is considering several sites overseas and in Australia, including Albany, for a $500 million station to produce 50MW of power plus 10- 15 gigalitres of desalinated water.

Carnegie boss Michael Ottaviano was not surprised other generators were interested in the WA coast because of the potential for wind farms from Geraldton to Eucla and its world class wave regime. Griffin plans to spend more than $1 billion on four 200MW coalfired stations near Collie and $250 million on a 130MW windfarm near its 80MW Cervantes complex.