Wednesday 19/8/2009 Page: 31
A WAVE farm generating base-load, emission-free electricity will be operating in SA within five years, the development manager for Carnegie Corporation said yesterday. Tim Sawyer, who was in Adelaide speaking at the Future Energy Conference, said a wave farm at Port MacDonnell in the state's south-east was likely to go ahead before 2014. The seaside town near Mt Gambier has been shortlisted by the company as a preferred site for its first demonstration power plant, along with locations in WA and Victoria.The power plant will use wave-power technology called CETO, which produces electricity from tethered submerged buoys in the ocean which pump high pressure seawater to shore. Mr Sawyer said an announcement on the location for the firm's first demonstration plant was imminent but, regardless of where the first was located, other sites would be developed. "If Port MacDonnell wasn't the first site it would be hot on the heels of the first," he said.
Mr Sawyer said the southeast site, which covered about 17,000ha of seabed near Port MacDonnell, was attractive for its strong wave resource and connection to the national electricity grid. He said the company was looking to establish a 5MW demonstration plant and a large-scale 50MW demonstration project.
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