November 22, 2006 03:20pm
Article from: AAP

PERTH could source power from the sea with a wave-power machine which has produced electricity and fresh water in a year-long trial off Fremantle.

The technology, which was invented by local businessman Alan Burns, allows a machine called CETO to sit on the seabed and use the power and movement of the waves to force seawater ashore at high pressure through a small pipe.
Once ashore, the water is used to drive a turbine generator to produce electricity, West Australian Energy Minister Francis Logan said today.

This can be sold, or used for desalination.

Mr Logan said the current CETO prototype would be replaced by CETO II pre-commercialisation units, which would be installed in 2007.

"The CETO technology is being developed by the Perth-based company Seapower Pacific and they are aiming for full commercialisation by 2010," the minister said.

"I am very hopeful that wave energy will become an important addition to the suite of renewable energy generators in this state."

Mr Long said a hectare-sized wave farm of 125 CETO units may be able to produce 18 megawatts of electricity with no greenhouse gas emissions.

That would be enough to either power 10,000 households or, instead, to produce 45 billion litres of fresh drinking water each year, he said.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20802237-1702,00.html