Australia: Carnegie Wins AUD 1.27 Million AusIndustry Grant

Wave energy developer Carnegie Wave Energy Limited, announced the award of a $1.27m AusIndustry grant from the Clean Technology Innovation Program to support a CETO Seawater Desalination Demonstration Pilot Plant.

The award of the funding supports the design and construction of a CETO Desalination Plant which will desalinate seawater to produce freshwater. The plant will be directly powered by CETO hydraulic energy from an offshore CETO system. The aim is to demonstrate that CETO wave energy driven seawater desalination has the potential to significantly and sustainably reduce the amount of electricity consumed, and hence the associated greenhouse gas emissions produced, by seawater desalination.

The $1.27m grant was announced today in Rockingham by the Honourable Greg Combet, MP, Minister for Climate Change and Efficiency, Industry and Innovation and by the Honourable Gary Gray MP, Special Minister of State and Federal Member for Brand.

Carnegie’s Chief Operating Officer, Greg Allen said,

“The ability of CETO to produce both clean power and water is a significant advantage. Western Australia is recognised as a global leader in desalination and we are grateful to AusIndustry for its support of this world first project. We look forward to working with AusIndustry to finalise the details of the project and its planned integration into our existing Perth Wave Energy Project.”

The CETO desalination pilot will be co-located with Carnegie’s Perth Wave Energy Project (PWEP) on Garden Island, integrating off-the-shelf reverse osmosis desalination technology with the PWEP infrastructure. Carnegie’s PWEP is due to begin construction shortly with power production due to commence in early 2014. The construction and commissioning of the desalination pilot will follow power production. Carnegie’s existing licence agreement with the Australian Department of Defence makes provision for the production and supply of freshwater from PWEP to the HMAS Stirling navy base on Garden Island.

The grant is subject to a number of conditions including the drafting and signing of a funding agreement, an AusIndustry review of the project budget, Carnegie completing the site characterisation and project design, as well as the delivery of Carnegie’s Perth Wave Energy Project.

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Press release, February 28, 2013; Image: Carnegie