US-based Ocean Power Technologies has paved the way for the construction of a large-scale wave power station in Australia through the signing of a joint development agreement with Perth-based Griffin Energy.
OPT and Griffin Wave Power say they will design, build and operate a 10 MW power plant based on OPT’s PowerBuoy wave generation system off the coast of Western Australia. The plant could later be expanded to 100 MW.
Ocean conditions off this coast mean that an area of 100 hectares could generate up to 100 MW of energy, says OPT. The state is aiming to implement a renewable energy target of 15 per cent by 2020.
The energy generated by the project will be fed into Western Australia’s main power grid. OPT’s Australian subsidiary and Griffin Energy will form a joint venture to execute the project.
“The Western Australian government has already announced it intends to implement a renewable energy target of 15 per cent by 2020,” said Wayne Trumble, Executive General Manager of Griffin Energy. “Our proposed joint venture wave power project will put us at the forefront of a new horizon in renewable energy development, and we look forward to working with government and OPT to realise our vision.”
OPT’s PowerBuoy technology is a floating buoy anchored to the seabed that captures the energy created by the rising and falling waves. The New Jersey-based company has already installed the technology in Hawaii and New Jersey
It is also developing a 1.39 MW wave power park off the coast of northern Spain in conjunction with Iberdrola and a 2 MW project off the coast of Oregon, USA.
In Spain, OPT is executing an engineering, procurement and construction contract for a wave power station, subsea power transmission cable, underwater substation and grid connection. The company has completed the final assembly and testing of the PB40 wave energy converter, which will be installed some 5 miles off the coast of Santander.
