Burnie Advocate
Friday 13/6/2008 Page: 17
THE west coast of King Island is set to become the site of a revolutionary new power source. Within the next month scientists will set up monitors on the ocean floor to look at wave climate and the possibility of harnessing the energy to use as power. Energy company Oceanlinx is hoping to have power generated within the next couple of years. Oceanlinx executive director and chief technology officer Tom Denniss said it was looking at a number of sites on the island to capture the energy.
"King Island has an excellent wave climate, particularly on the west coast," he said. But to do this Oceanlinx must first test possible locations for suitability. This will include placing small and benign pressure sensors on the seabeds for a couple of months to record wave heights and periods. " This will hopefully be in place within the next month or so," Dr Denniss said. Dr Denniss said he was unsure which sites would be used, but they would probably be on the west coast, close to grid interconnection points.
This means it will probably be near Currie, but there are other possibilities. Dr Denniss said wave power was a denser energy source than wind and solar. "It is more predictable, and is also less variable... we also expect it to eventually be the cheapest renewable energy option," he said. Oceanlinx has projects running in Portland, Victoria; Port Kembla, NSW; Cornwall, United Kingdom; Rhode Island, US; Namibia and Hawaii. King Island already has solar and wind power running.
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