$1.3m funding for wave power development in Australia

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced AUS$1.3 million in funding for the countries national science agency to research and develop wave power projects.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) will use the funding to undertake an innovative wave resource mapping and modelling project.

Australia’s only wave power development – Carnegie Wave Energy Limited’s Perth Wave Energy Project off Garden Island in Western Australia – will be monitored as part of the project, allowing CSIRO to improve the assessment of the impact of wave energy plants.

ARENA chief executive Ivor Frischknecht said: “This project builds on CSIRO’s previous work and is an important step forward in enabling more wave energy projects to come to the fore in Australia. It involves a collaboration that will see data from weather mapping, satellites, measuring stations and a variety of other sources fed into a complex wave modelling application. The resulting wave resource information will be presented via an online portal that will allow users to assess the feasibility of wave power projects.”

Mr Frischknecht said data would be used to establish best practice guidelines for wave impact modelling for industry.

The project will be carried out in stages over the next three years and is scheduled for completion in 2017.

ARENA chief exectuive Ivor Frischknecht said the funding would enable CSIRO to develop a publically accessible wave energy atlas that would allow users to better assess the feasibility of wave power projects off Australian shores.