Bombora steps closer to Portugal deployment

Bombora Wave Power, an Australian wave energy developer, is finalizing the design work for the construction of the first full-sized cell of its mWave wave energy device, ahead of full-scale deployment in Portugal.

Bombora plans to build and test the single cell in Henderson, Western Australia, during the first half of 2017, ahead of deploying the first full size 1.5MW multi-cell mWave in Europe.

Construction of the first cell is being funded from the private capital raising announced back in April, when Bombora said that an initial Au$1 million was required to fund construction of the first cell of the converter.

Bombora added that capital raising has been extended to cover the deployment and commissioning of the single cell.

Sam Leighton, Bombora’s CEO, said: “We are delighted to reach the construction phase of a full size cell for the mWave and are engaging local and international suppliers to build this world class technology.”

The environmental approval process for the deployment of the 1.5MW multi-cell mWave at Peniche, Portugal is progressing in conjunction with Lisbon based WavEC, while the timing for deployment will be firmed up as the single cell project in Henderson progresses, Bombora said.

Bombora’s wave energy system uses a large membrane energy harvester to collect, concentrate and modulate the wave energy using an air circuit.

The system has an onboard 1.5MW air turbine that spins as wave passes over the system moving the air around the circuit and driving it through the turbine, which results in the generation of electricity.

As reported earlier, the recently completed feasibility study based on a 60MW Bombora mWave wave farm in Portugal concluded that electricity produced Bombora’s wave farms could be cost competitive with other renewable energy sources by the mid 2020’s.