Australian CETO 6 Wave Energy Project Moves Forward

Carnegie Wave Energy Limited (CWE) has reached financial close on the Clean Energy Finance Corporation’s (CEFC) five-year, $20 million loan facility which will partly fund the CETO 6 Project off Garden Island, Western Australia.

The CEFC facility will be used to part fund the construction of the project and will reduce the amount of equity Carnegie would otherwise require for the Project. The CETO 6 Project is also supported by an $11m grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).

Carnegie’s Chief Financial Officer, Aidan Flynn, said: “Reaching financial close on the CEFC facility is a watershed moment for Carnegie as this is the first time ever that Carnegie has achieved a pure debt finance deal. It follows on from the commissioning of the Perth Wave Energy Project and is representative of the maturing nature of the CETO technology. It now gives Carnegie the certainty of capital and cash flows to build this important commercial version of the CETO technology. Not only does the financial close pave the way for this project to happen it also importantly paves the way for project finance for subsequent CETO projects.”

Carnegie has also recently been granted a Commonwealth investigation licence to undertake the site characterisation activities required to finalise the design of the Project. In addition, Carnegie has received an EPBC Referral Decision from the Federal Department of the Environment to undertake geophysical and geotechnical surveys at the proposed CETO 6 Project site.

A wave buoy has already been deployed at the site to collect further detailed data about the wave resource at that location.

The conceptual design for the Project is also progressing well and is approaching completion, ahead of the detailed design phase. Completion of the conceptual design is also the second milestone in Carnegie’s $11m grant from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency’s (ARENA). The development of the CETO 6 project officially began in 2013 and is currently in the concept design stage.

Carnegie has previously announced that the CETO 6 unit will have increased power output, targeting four times the power capacity of the 240kW CETO 5 unit currently operating in the Perth Project. The CETO 6 Project will follow the Perth Project, which is currently operating off Garden Island, Western Australia and utilises the CETO 5 generation. By delivering step changes in power and efficiency, CETO 6 will advance the CETO technology towards commercial deployment in a wide range of targeted markets globally by reducing the levelised cost of energy produced.

Image: CWE