Wave power tipped as ‘holy grail’ for Australia

SYDNEY (AFP) – New technology harnessing wave energy could be the “holy grail” for providing electricity and drinking water to Australia’s major cities, Industry Minister Ian MacFarlane said Thursday.

The technology, developed with the help of more than 770 million dollars (636 million US) in seed funding from the government, works through fields of submerged buoys tethered to seabed pumps.



The buoys move in harmony with the motion of the passing waves, pumping pressurised seawater to shore to run turbines and pass through a desalination plant.

“The constancy of the waves even when the surface is dead calm means that you can build a base load renewable energy power station and that is really the holy grail for us, if you can produce renewable energy 24/7,” Macfarlane told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

AFP

A schematic of the system