Waves put in harness

Daily Telegraph
Thursday 18/6/2009 Page: 23

A MAJOR conservation group has backed the creation of energy by harnessing the power of the ocean swells which batter much of the Australian coast. WWF-Australia will release a report today claiming energy from waves close to the coast can provide approximately four times Australia's current national power needs. "Harnessing just 10% [of the available energy] could supply about 35% of Australia's current power demand," the report said. Building wave energy power stations which could generate 1500 MWs of electricity by 2020 would create 3210 jobs in Australia, WWF-Australia says. The group said this would be enough to power 1.2 million households with clean energy.