Of one thing we can be certain: that CWE will tread very carefully in the lead up to the construction and deployment of its commercial model, the C6. It cannot afford to fail through bad publicity. For this reason it can hardly deploy a C6 at any remote island site before having it thoroughly tested at home and at Falmouth where all the necessary support and service facilities are available at short notice.
This does not mean that microgrids cannot be commenced at island sites. The wave power component can be planned for and installed later to become the primary source.
The ABC interview in the link provided seems to be at an elementary level. Neither party is asking or answering penetrating questions. Waves can diffract around large islands (Tasmania, NZ) but this does not generally occur through steep angles (right angles) so as to propagate due North.
It should be remembered that WECs need a significant wave climate to extract sufficient power.
It has been said for some years (by various companies including CWE) in a rather arbitrary manner that a wave energy of 20 kW/m (of crest length) was satisfactory for generating power from ocean waves. I was always somewhat sceptical. This was probably intended as a lolly for island communities and for other governments to keep the fire irons hot. However putting an expensive plant in a low energy wave field makes for very high cost power. I notice that CWE in its presentation of 9 June implies that it has upped its estimate for viability to 30 kW/m. The wave field energy at WaveHub is ~30-35 kW/m which should therefore yield very favourable outcomes.
Given sufficient time (~decade?) WECs and their foundations will evolve so that costs will decrease and the range of possible sites will increase again.
Juke
CWE Price at posting:
3.3¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
