Wave energy developer Carnegie Wave Energy Limited has announced that the first of its new generation CETO 5 wave energy units has been installed and is operating at its Perth Wave Energy Project site off Garden Island, Western Australia.
The CETO 5 unit was installed on the first attempt and has now been operating for a little over a week. The sea state conditions experienced during this initial operation period have ranged up to maximum wave heights approaching 3.5m and unit performance to date has been as expected with no faults identified.
Carnegie’s Chairman, Mr Grant Mooney, said:
“We are delighted to have successfully commissioned the first CETO 5 unit. This moment is the result of an enormous effort by the entire Carnegie team as well as the incredible support from our shareholders, the Western Australia State Government, the Australian Federal Government, the Department of Defence, the Royal Australian Navy and the City of Rockingham.”
Carnegie’s Managing Director, Dr Michael Ottaviano, said:
“The successful operation of CETO 5 marks the completion of a critical phase in Carnegie’s evolution and culmination of 3 years of design, financing, development and construction. It is also now the start of a new phase as we learn as much as we can about CETO 5 via the data collection and analysis that has already commenced. This initial CETO 5 unit is currently delivering significant amounts of real time data in regards to hydrodynamic movement, pressures, flows, loads, displacements and the like. All of which is critical to validating Carnegie’s proprietary computational models which can then be used with confidence in finalising the design of Carnegie’s 1MW CETO 6 system in 2015.”
Ivor Frischknecht, the CEO of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) said the achievement at the Perth Wave Energy Project was of great significance for wave energy in Australia.
“This project demonstrates that wave energy has a real future as part of Australia’s energy mix,” Mr Frischknecht said. “It is also evidence that developing and commercialising new technologies takes considerable time, resources and financing. The CETO technology has been progressively scaled up over the past decade and has made great strides towards offering a competitive renewable energy solution.”
The second CETO 5 unit is currently being finalised ready for deployment which will likely take place in December, subject to suitable weather conditions. Once confidence is established with its operation, installation of the third CETO 5 unit would follow. It is also likely during this period that Unit 1 will be retrieved for a complete inspection prior to a redeployment.
Connection to the Western Power grid will occur once Carnegie has full confidence in the power quality and system control being achieved. Until that point the hydraulic energy delivered ashore will be measured and run through a load bank at the onshore power station site at HMAS Stirling on Garden Island. Integration of the wave energy into the desalination plant will occur after electricity generation and grid connection has been achieved.
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Press release; Image: carnegie