OES Annual Report 2012 - Ocean Energy Systems

91
04 / COUNTRY REPORTS
$230 million project at the end of this year or early next year. The project was awarded a $66 million grant
by the Federal Government in 2009, initially with the involvement of the Australian construction company,
Leighton Holdings. Leighton has now been replaced by Lockheed (USA) to assist with project development
and manufacturing requirements.
Carnegie Corporation has recently received a $15.5 million Federal Government grant for the $31 million
Perth Wave Energy Project (Western Australia). The total project size is up to 2 MW and demonstrates
Carnegie’s previous smaller-scale CETO technology funded in part by the State Government of Western
Australia. Five CETO units are to be deployed, with each “buoyant activator” of 11 metres diameter
delivering 240 kW. Power delivery to the grid is planned for the end of 2013.
Oceanlinx has received a $4 million Federal Government grant for a $7 million project to demonstrate the
operation of their “GreenWAVE” (shallow water) oscillating water column technology 4 km off the South
Australian coast. Grid connection is anticipated for the end of 2013.
New Developments
In July 2012, it was announced that BioPower Systems received a $5.7 million grant from the Federal
Government to develop a $15 million bioWAVE pilot demonstration project off the coast of Victoria. The
project has also received funding support from the State Government of Victoria ($5 million). The bioWAVE
pilot is expected to be deployed in late 2013.
The tidal company, Tenax Energy has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with
the Northern Territory’s Power and Water Corporation to develop a 2 MW pilot plant, and a Research
and Tropical Tidal Testing Centre based on the Clarence Strait near Darwin (the capital of the Northern
Territory). If the 2 MW pilot plant is successful, it will be followed by a 10 MW pilot array test facility. It is
intended that the testing station will be used to trial a number of different turbines and technologies in the
Clarence Strait.
SOUTH AFRICA
Thembakazi Mali
SANEDI
In South Africa there is a lot going on in Renewable Energy. A number of Solar, Wind, Hydro and Biomass
projects have reached financial close and some plants will be coming on stream in the next two years.
However, there is very little activity on Ocean Energy and there has not been substantial investment except a
couple of university research projects. Eskom is continuing to monitor the Agulhas current and they are also
performing wave resource assessments at 8 locations around the south and south eastern sea board of South
Africa. The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) and Eskom launched an ‘open innovation challenge’ through
which they hope to stimulate the development of commercially viable ocean-current-energy technologies. The
open innovation challenge is looking for proven-concept proposals that are environmentally and aesthetically
sensitive and have potential for technology development on a commercial scale. This challenge aims to bring
the much required impetus to accelerate South African innovations and commercialise a technology. Thirty
eight proposals were received from both the local and international market. Seven proposals were shortlisted
for funding and potential further development. A meeting of the South African Ocean Energy Network was
convened and it is expected that the network which consist of interested stakeholders will eventually be an
association.