CLIMATE SPECTATOR: All set to catch the next energy wave
The weekend just past was a pretty lousy one for surf in the Perth region, with wave heights around knee to waste high at best. Not great for surfers, but just fine for developers of ocean energy, such as the Perth-based Carnegie Wave Energy. To generate electricity from the ocean, you don't need big waves, you just need constant wave motion.
Early on Sunday Perth time, Australia's first commercial-size wave energy machine – developed by Carnegie – was quietly deployed and began producing power from its pump anchored around 25 metres under the sea off the Garden Island Naval Base.
It was a hugely significant moment for Carnegie, which has spent more than a decade developing its CETO technology, which has been refined from an original idea from company founder Alan Burns, the oil and mining entrepreneur who became fascinated by ocean energy after being pummelled by some truly big waves in Hawaii and off Rottnest Island nearly two decades ago.
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