Australian renewable developer Carnegie Clean Energy (CCE) has signed a collaboration agreement with Enel Group’s renewable energy arm Enel Green Power (EGP) for the research and development of the 1.5MW CETO 6 wave energy generator.
Image: Enel Green Power and CCE cooperate on wave energy. Photo: courtesy of Enel Spa.
Under the deal, EGP and Carnegie will jointly work to identify, develop and invest in new opportunities for CETO 6 across Australia, Europe and globally.
EGP will invest around A$1.6m in the collaboration activities to be carried out under the agreement.
Enel Green Power head Antonio Cammisecra said: “EGP is active in scouting and promoting the most innovative technologies in the renewables field: marine energy is the most challenging and appealing example. Australia’s powerful marine waves represent one of the most attractive sources available.
“The agreement with CCE, a company that has been active in marine energy research for a decade, allows us to leverage on one of the most disruptive energy generation technologies with good potential for further developments.”
As part of the deal, EGP and CCE will also cooperate within the framework of the Albany Wave Energy Project (AWEP), a government-backed development project which involves the design, manufacture, installation and 12-month testing of a full-scale CETO 6 unit offshore in Albany, Western Australia.
The testing phase of the AWEP is scheduled to commence by the first half of 2020.
Carnegie managing director Michael Ottaviano said: “Our belief in the potential of CETO remains undiminished. Wave energy remains the last great untapped renewable resource globally.
“Like all power technologies, its commercialisation requires the collaboration and consistent commitment of innovators, governments, research and industry leaders of the likes of Enel Green Power.”
Additionally, EGP will become a technical committee member of both CCE and Wave Energy Research Centre run by the University of Western Australia with support from the Western Australian Government.
The CETO 6 wave energy generator is designed to generate electricity from the kinetic energy of waves by leveraging multiple moorings and power take-off modules.
EGP said it expects the Carnegie’s CETO 6 device to compete with mainstream renewables once the technology is manufactured in high volumes and built at large project scale.