For a cost-rich country like Australia, oceanic wave energy is a ready and largely-untapped source of essentially unlimited power, and the Perth-based Wave Energy Project has just set a new world record after 14,000 total hours of operation.

Located off the coast of Western Australia, the CETO 5 energy system has been live for a year and not only generates clean energy but also desalinates water for human consumption.

This remarkable project also represents another milestone: the first array of wave power generators tied directly into a country’s electrical grid. Each unit of their next-generation variant has a one-megawatt capacity (four times the current version 5 output), all with zero emissions.

“ARENA is proud to help local companies, like [Carnegie Wave Energy Limited], develop new renewable energy solutions that have the potential to change the way the world generates electricity,” said ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht. “We do this by providing Australian innovators with the support they need during the critical RD&D period, when patient funding is essential.”

The post Record-Setting Ocean Wave Energy Plant Hits 14,000 Hours first appeared on Gajitz.

Deployed off the coast of Australia, the first electricity grid-connected wave power station on the planet has been switched on. If deployed broadly and at scale around Western Australia, this system could ultimately provide more than 10 times the entire power requirements of the state.

Developed by Carnegie Wave Energy, the specific technology is named CETO (after a Greek goddess of the sea) and converts ocean swell into zero-emission renewable power as well as desalinated freshwater. Being underwater, the system is designed to be safe from unpredictable and dangerous surface conditions.

The round, submerged buoys are tethered to seabed pump units, which are installed at a depth of between 25 and 50 metres. Waves crashing into the buoys drive the pumps, which push pressurised seawater through a pipeline beneath the ocean floor to an onshore hydroelectric power station. Here, the high-pressure water drives a turbine and generates electricity.

The process of creating freshwater utilizes elements of the same system. “The high-pressure water can be used to supply a reverse osmosis desalination plant, replacing or reducing reliance on greenhouse gas-emitting, electrically-driven pumps usually required for such plants.”

The post Down Under: World’s First Wave Power Station Tied to Grid first appeared on Gajitz.