Tuesday 19 January 2010

SA wave energy project still on stream

www.news.com.au
January 11, 2010

Carnegie Corporation's proposed $400 million wave-energy project at Port MacDonnell near Mt Gambier has not lost ground as a result of receiving funds for its West Australian project, the company says. Carnegie Corporation received the first tranche of a $12.5 million grant from the WA Government last week for its Garden Island project. The grant will be used to support the building of a large commercial prototype for its CETO technology, which uses the movement of buoys anchored on the ocean floor to drive onshore turbines. Chief operating officer Greg Allen said the advancement of the WA project did not kill interest in its South Australian plans.

"The plan has always been based around delivering the West Australian project first, so it hasn't changed,'' he said. "We are in the process of negotiating a specialist to undertake project feasibility work at the site as part of an environmental constraints review. That will then feed into the design side of the project to start looking at the scope and the detailed costings.'' The State Government leased a 17,000ha stretch of seabed to the company for an initial three-year period in February last year to allow it to test the appropriateness of the site for a wave-energy project. Carnegie Corporation has a further three-year option over the site and may be granted a project lease at any time it agrees to proceed.

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