Australia’s navy is seeking not only to rule the waves but to harness them, too, signing a power supply deal for its largest base with cutting-edge wave energy company Carnegie Wave, Carnegie said on Monday.
Carnegie Wave has completed the first stage of its project based in Perth, the capital of Western Australia state, and expects to supply all the electricity generated from the project to the base, HMAS Stirling, from the end of 2013, the company said in a statement.
Shares in Carnegie Wave, which also has a wave energy operation in Ireland, surged 34 percent to 5.1 Australian cents on the news.
Submerged buoys use wave energy to pump pressurised water to onshore turbines, generating electricity.
The company won a A$10 million ($10.2 million) grant earlier this year from Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s government, which is keen to promote clean energy investment.
“I am very pleased that we’ve been able to support the development of this world-leading technology … through a new relationship between Carnegie Wave and our defence force,” Gillard told reporters in announcing the deal in Perth.
HMAS Stirling is named for a British Royal Navy captain who established the first European settlement in Western Australia in 1829.
