Australian Government Awards Funding for Oceanlinx 1MW Wave Energy Demonstrator

Oceanlinx announces that the Australian Government has awarded funding of $3,970,450 from the Emerging Renewables Program for a $7,242,550 project, “Oceanlinx 1MW Commercial Wave Energy Demonstrator”. The project cost includes one year of operations post the grid connection. The unit with a foot print of 20m by 20m will be the most cost effective and powerful unit of its kind in this sector.

By securing this significant support from the Federal Government, this will enable Oceanlinx to fully demonstrate Oceanlinx shallow water variant technology (greenWAVE) on a commercial scale in South Australia. This Emerging Renewables Project will involve the grid connection of the world’s first 1MW capacity wave energy converter (WEC). The project is anticipated to take 12 months, with grid connection in late 2013.

The greenWAVE device is a rigid structure with no contaminants onboard and no moving parts under water. Sitting 4km off the coastline with two-thirds of the structure underwater, it is extremely safe with zero emissions. It is anticipated that this support will ensure the Oceanlinx technology will achieve Technology Readiness Level 8, demonstrating its competitiveness at a global scale and its ability to move to the next step in commercialisation.

The Oceanlinx Wave Energy Company is a pioneer in the field of wave energy with more than 40,000 hours of operational experience and 5,000 hours of electrical generation to date. Based on the Oscillating Water Column (OWC) technology, Oceanlinx are the only company in the world in this sector with a complete end to end solution which comprises internationally patented Oceanlinx designed OWC, turbine and power conversion technology with many applications for shallow and deep water. The Oceanlinx designed technology is 100% mature and currently stands at TRL 7, one of the few fully grid connected and tested technologies in the open ocean in the world.

With 100% Australian owned IP, this Emerging Renewables Project will pave the way to make Australia a centre of excellence for WEC systems. The project will also enhance technology expertise knowledge base and help in filling the gaps in skills and competitiveness, therefore creating the potential for large scale employment opportunities in the future.

Mr. Baghaei, the CEO & MD of Oceanlinx said:

“I am proud of my team’s achievement to date. With full focus on the technology development, they have worked hard to progressively increase the WEC efficiency whilst reducing the cost of energy production”.

“We are extremely grateful to the Australian Centre for Renewable Energy (ACRE), the Australian Government and Minister Ferguson for their support, enabling very promising Australian born and bred technology to strengthen its lead in global markets”.

“Oceanlinx has been the first to grid connect and operate continuously using Integral Energy’s grid in Australia and aims to be the first to lead the market”.

“I would like to thank our existing and new investors for their $8M support and also our project partners for their collaboration and cooperation to date without which this would have not been possible”.   

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Offshore WIND staff, July 4, 2012; Image: Oceanlinx