Greens energy view sure to make waves

Convener of the Illawarra Greens Jill Merrin said wave energy should receive funding currently allocated to clean coal research.

CONVENER of the Illawarra Greens Jill Merrin said the area would be considered by the Illawarra Greens as a possible place for wave power facilities if certain Commonwealth Government funding was redirected to renewable energy funding.

Ms Merrin's comments echoed those of Greens Senator Kerry Nettle, who recently visited the Oceanlinx wave power generator in Port Kembla to announce that the Greens want to redirect Commonwealth funding for clean coal research to renewable energy research.

The Oceanlinx generator in Port Kembla works like an artificial blowhole- consisting of a large man-made cavern which is extended into the water, with a smaller opening at the top.

As waves swell inside the chamber air is forced out the smaller hole on top on the cavern and is used to spin a turbine, which transfers energy through a cable back to land.

The inventor of the technology Tom Denis from Oceanlinx said if developed and implemented well wave power could give the world 10 percent of it's energy needs.

“It could quite feasibly provide a good percentage of the world's power,” he said.

“No-one's claiming 100 percent, but certainly in the vicinity of 10 percent, or even more.”

Mr Denis said when the technology has been developed the generators will be able to move far enough off shore to ensure they could not be seen from the land.

“Eventually as they got scaled up we would be looking to move them further off shore (and eventually have) large numbers over the horizon,” he said.

Mr Denis said while the Illawarra is a good area for generators there are places where bigger waves would mean more energy was produced by them.

“(The Illawarra) is a good area but it's not the most ideal,” he said.

“The most ideal is where the waves are largest and generally in our country that's towards the South; Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia and Tasmania.

“The next best is NSW.”

Ms Merrin said it was “rather a shame to see some of this research coming out of Australia not being used in Australia.”