Wave power to light up remote coastal regions

Courier Mail
Thursday 25/6/2009 Page: 23

A WAVE power generator with the potential to provide electricity to communities dependent on diesel power at 50% of the cost, is being trialled in Moreton Bay. The Nautilus a 30m prototype is the first floating, off-shore wave power generator launched in Australia. It has been developed by Ivan Voropaev and has produced positive results during a three-year conceptual trial at the University of Queensland.

Now the prototype, developed with $160,000 in funding from the State Government, will be floated in Moreton Bay for a six-month trial. The design allows waves to pass underneath the structure, forcing the air pockets through a funnel to drive a turbine. Gary Cooper, director of Advanced Wave Power, the company that hopes to commercialise the product, said a generator platform 50m wide and 200m long would create enough energy in Queensland to power about 40 homes. "If you go to other places it can quadruple the amount of power but it really depends where the platforms are located as to how much energy they can produce," Mr Cooper said.

"Different places have different wave heights and different wave frequencies." Mr Cooper said this new power generator would be ideal for island and remote coastal communities dependent on diesel power. "The cost of diesel power generation is quite high," he said. He said the technology provided more constant power than alternative wave generators because it used multiple wave crests rather than one wave crest, at any one time.