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Last Update: Thursday, May 17, 2007. 3:04pm (AEST)
Wave technology could be 'holy grail' of renewable energy
Federal Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane says a new technology harnessing wave energy could be the "holy grail" in providing electricity and drinking water to Australia's major capital cities.

The system developed by Perth-based Carnegie Corporation with the help of more than $775,000 dollars in seed funding from the Federal Government works through a number of submerged buoys tethered to seabed pumps.

The company chairman, Alan Burns, says the buoys move in harmony with the motion of the passing waves, pumping pressurised seawater to shore.

"There is a very slow acting pump that pressurises the water from the sea brings it to shore at a very high pressure which then runs through a turbine and desalination plant, so there is no electricity, no oil, no nothing, it's simply sea water coming to shore at very high pressure," he said.

Mr Macfarlane says the technology is capable of making a real difference with power and water supply to people living near the coast

"The fact that 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," he said.

ARY BELOW.