Wave-powered desalination to be investigated in Australia

Australian cleantech developer Carnegie Corporation Ltd and the Australian government are to investigate the use of wave energy to power a desalination plant.

The study was agreed in January through a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Carnegie and the Department of Defence.

The MoU involves investigation of the feasibility of a wave-energy facility at Garden Island, Western Australia. Carnegie believes that there is sufficient wave-energy potential off Garden Island to develop a project harnessing energy from the ocean to generate electricity and/or desalinated water.

The wave-energy facility would initially be used for testing commercial scale CETO units, which use an array of buoys tethered to the sea-floor, as part of the commercial demonstration phase. This could, in the future, provide the naval base on Garden Island with a standalone, sustainable, clean source of electricity and/or fresh water.

CETO technology is owned by Renewable Energy Holdings, which has a joint venture license relationship with EDF in the northern hemisphere to own and operate CETO wave-power projects and in the southern hemisphere with Carnegie Corporation to develop the CETO wave-energy technology.

For more information: see www.carnegiecorp.com.au.