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MAKING POWER UNDER THE SEABED IN RENEWABLE ENERGY TECHNOLOGY

Sydney - Monday - March 23: (RWE Aust Business News)
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OVERVIEW
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Renewable energy development is receiving a big push from State
and Federal Governments in the form of special locations and grants worth
millions of dollars.
The Australian Government is committed to ensuring renewable
energy has a 20 per cent share in Australia's electricity supply by 2020.
To achieve this goal, demonstration of new, renewable
technologies is required on a commercial scale to help prove the
technologies and attract further private sector investment.
A company well in the forefront of this development is a small
public company, Carnegie Corporation Ltd (ASX:CNM).
Last Friday, the company announced it had been awarded three
locations for wave energy sites at Portland, Warrnambool and Phillip
Island.
Carnegie already has WA and SA sites as possible commercial
demonstration project locations.
The wave energy developer reported it will use and develop
coastal Crown land for three wave energy projects, to undertake a marine
surveys and to trial the CETO wave energy technology.
"We are very pleased to have further options for the location of
our commercial demonstration project and subsequent commercial projects
in addition to our Western Australian and South Australian sites," said
Carnegie's managing director, Dr Michael Ottaviano.
A recent report by RPS MetOcean commissioned by Carnegie showed
that Victoria has an estimated near-shore wave energy resource of
18,000MW - almost double the state's total installed power generation
capacity.
Furthermore, taking into account the proximity of current power
transmission infrastructure, about 20 per cent of Victoria's current
base-load power needs could economically be met by harnessing waves.
Victoria's Environment and Climate Change Minister Gavin Jennings
said the Government supported the development of a wave energy pilot in
waters around Portland, Warrnambool and Phillip Island.
"The Brumby Government is taking action to encourage investment
in sustainable energy by supporting new technology that can produce power
with no carbon emissions," Mr Jennings said.
Carnegie has outlined what the CETO wave energy technology is all
about.
It says the CETO system distinguishes itself from other wave
energy devices by operating out of sight and being anchored to the ocean
floor.
An array of submerged buoys is tethered to seabed pump units.
The buoys move in harmony with the motion of the passing waves,
driving the pumps which in turn pressurise seawater that is delivered
ashore via a pipeline.
The high-pressure seawater is used to drive hydro turbines,
generating baseload, zero-emission electricity.
The high-pressure seawater can also be used to supply a reverse
osmosis desalination plant, replacing greenhouse gas emitting pumps
usually required for such plants.
CETO technology characteristics include:
* Conversion of wave energy into baseload zero-emission
electricity;
* Is environmentally friendly, has no visual impact and attracts
marine life; and
* Is fully submerged in deep water away from popular surf breaks
and safe from storms.
Carnegie said wave energy as a renewable energy source can power
the world twice over.
Australia has the largest and best wave energy resource of any
country and 60 per cent of the world lives within 60km of a coast,
minimising transmission issues.

SHARE PRICE MOVEMENTS
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Shares of Carnegie Corporation rose 2c to 18.5c on Friday.
Rolling high for the half year is 21c and low 9.4c. The company was has
467.2 million shares on on issue with a market cap of $86.4 million
In a recent update, Carnegie Corporation reported that it carried
out the final operating and testing activities associated with the pilot
scale CETO unit (CETO 2) at its wave energy research facility at
Fremantle, Western Australia, throughout 2008.
Final performance testing involved the deployment of instrumented
CETO 2 units connected back onshore to the Fremantle test facility with
data collected over a range of sea and swell conditions.
Carnegie said these results confirmed excellent correlation
between predicted and measured performance.
Additionally, excellent results were achieved in predicting pump
output based on incident wave height and period.
The predictability of the power output based on the measured wave
input will be an important feature of CETO wave power plants as power
dispatched into the grid will be predictable and therefore much easier to
manage than more variable renewable resources like wind.
The data collection and performance analysis of the CETO 2 units
is now complete.
The commercialisation phase of the CETO development has now been
underway for some time.
The first stage of the commercial demonstration project is the
deployment and testing of the project scale, commercial CETO unit
(CETO 3).
Carnegie said that the design and preliminary testing of
individual components is progressing well.
Deployment and testing of the CETO 3 units will occur at
Carnegie's test site off Garden Island, Western Australia.
Carnegie has previously reported its collaborative relationship
with the Australian Government's Department of Defence's naval base
located on Garden Island.
As part of the CETO 3 test program, Carnegie recently deployed a
wave data buoy at the location of the test site behind Garden Island in
order to collect detailed information on the wave climate.
The deployment and testing of the CETO 3 unit remains on track to
take place later this year.
In February, Carnegie received $12.5 million from from the WA
State Government's Low Emissions Energy Development (LEED) fund.
"We look forward to finalising the details of the contracts with
the State Government of Western Australia to allow the funds to be
distributed once agreed milestones have been reached," Dr Ottaviano said.
Carnegie's commercial demonstration project is planned to be a
50MW peak installed wave energy plant and has the potential to save
240,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions a year.
South Australia is currently on track to reach its target to
boost the proportion of renewable energy generated and consumed in the
state to 20 per cent by 2014.
Carnegie Corporation has been issued with the South Australia's
first wave power licence.
The licence will allow Carnegie to test a site along the
Limestone Coast, near Port MacDonnell, with a view to building a
demonstration 50MW wave power station.

BACKGROUND
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Carnegie Corporation was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange
on October 26, 1993.
It is 98 per cent owned by Australian investors.
The CETO technology IP is owned by AIM-listed Renewable Energy
Holdings (REH) which has a joint venture licence relationship with EDF EN
in the northern hemisphere to own and operate CETO wave power projects
and in the southern hemisphere with Carnegie Corporation to develop the
CETO wave energy technology.
Carnegie also has the exclusive rights to own and operate all
commercial CETO wave farms in the southern hemisphere (excluding Reunion
Island).
The company's executive team and directors have considerable
experience in technology commercialisation and corporate leadership
providing a strong platform for further growth.
Unlike other wave energy systems currently under development
around the world, the CETO wave power converter is the first unit to be
fully-submerged and to produce high pressure seawater from the power of
waves.
By delivering high pressure seawater ashore, the technology
allows either zero-emission electricity to be produced (similar to
hydroelectricity) or zero-emission freshwater (utilising standard reverse
osmosis desalination technology).
It also means that there is no need for undersea grids or high
voltage transmission nor costly marine qualified plants.
ENDS

Copyright © 2009 RWE Australian Business News. All rights reserved.

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