An Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Program funding injection of $256,000 will enable a significant increase in research activity, beginning with a series of complex physical scale model experiments in AMC’s shallow water model test basin due to start later this month (October 2014). AMC researchers Dr Irene Penesis, Dr Gregor Macfarlane and Dr Alan Fleming have been collaborating with Bombora to investigate the performance of their ocean wave energy converter systems since 2012.
Bombora has developed a unique system that converts wave energy into cost-effective electricity. Each unit is rated at 1.5MW and has the potential to supply renewable electricity to 500 homes, equivalent to producing 1 gigalitre of desalinated water each year or taking 825 cars off the roads. The company has also been involved in programmes development, tank testing initiatives and the initial design of test equipment. This will continue during the company’s involvement with AMC on the ARC Linkage project.
“Waves are an abundant, inexhaustible and untapped source of renewable energy that is significantly less variable and more predictable than other renewable resources such as wind or solar” said Bombora Director Shawn Ryan. “Our system features a sturdy, seabed mounted structure with a flexible membrane that enables it to withstand storms and harness a greater proportion of the available wave energy. The system’s flexible membrane and simple valving squeezes air through a closed circuit and extracts energy with a central air turbine to generate electricity.”
Dr Macfarlane added that the results of the research are expected to help Bombora realise and expand its existing development, calibration of computer modelling and understanding of the technical hydrodynamic characteristics of the system. Plans for further collaboration with Bombora on another ARC Linkage Project in the 2015 round are already underway. Both parties are hoping that this will motivate additional collaborators from Edith Cowan University and Curtin University to join the project team.
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