Protean Energy, in Perth, is to install its first commercial-sized wave energy conversion platform, north of Geraldton, after announcing an agreement yesterday with the Shire of Northampton in Western Australia.
The patent-pending technology is attracting interest from utilities, the military, governments and corporations around the globe, it said.
The shire will assist Protean with the approvals processes, paving the way for the development of a wave farm capable of producing up to 5MW of energy, which should power about 5000 homes.
Protean intends to deploy a data collection device early next year, offshore from Geraldton, which will be used to make a financial investment decision in 2013.
Another unlisted company, BioPower Systems in Sydney, said earlier this week its full-scale O-Drive wave power conversion module had delivered stable power to the grid over extended periods of testing and showed a high level of conversion efficiency.
The company will use the O-Drive module in a pilot demonstration of its bioWAVE energy system off the coast of Victoria, a project which is under development at a grid-connected site.
Listed Perth ocean-power firm Carnegie Energy is eyeing the Irish market as well as making solid progress in Australia.
In April, the company began producing energy from a trial of its CETO 3 technology on Garden Island, south of Perth, saying it was the southern hemisphere’s first commercial-scale wave power unit.
Carnegie expects customers to be state-based utilities and the Department of Defence, which operates Australia’s largest naval base at Garden Island.
The company earlier this month said it had completed studies, half funded by the Irish government, into the development of a commercial demonstration project in the North Atlantic.
