10 September 2007

Harvesting wave energy for Australia's electrical needs

CETO is a new system that generates electricity from wave motion. A prototype has been in operation off the coast of Western Australia for several years, but the parent company, Renewable Energy Holdings is now ready to start heading into full production.

Most wave generation systems sit on the water's surface, whereas the CETO system collects energy by tethering rows of buoys to the sea floor. As the buoys sway, they pump high-pressure water to shore and spin turbines for power.

And because CETO sends water - not electricity, as other systems do - it can also be used for desalination, which requires high pressure to force water through the membranes used in reverse-osmosis desalination.

Apparently a 'field' of the buoys the size of a football field will generate enough electricity for around 25,000 houses.

Their website has a great little animation of the buoys in action.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

Gentec venturi generates at full capacity 24/7 AND it produces desalinated water as a by-product.

CETO can either desalinate or generate - it can't do both like Gv

Darryn Parkinson & Sharon Hamilton said...

Thanks for pointing this out Andrew, i've re-investigated the CETO webiste and you comment is correct, so sorry for the error.

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