The M4 Wave Energy Demonstrator project is nearing the final stages of completion with deployment set for late August/early September in King George Sound, Albany this year.
The project headed up by the Marine Energy Research Centre at the University of Western Australia, designed the prototype M4, short for ‘Moored MultiModal Multibody’ to demonstrate wave energy’s potential to power other industries such as the aquaculture industry.
The 24m-long, 9.5m-wide device consists of a hinged steel frame that generates clean energy with its hinging motion in waves. The frame is the length of an average wave within King George Sound and is kept afloat by four large buoys.
The prototype device will be deployed for 6 months over the summer and will collect data on its efficiency and how much power it can generate prior to the production of a larger-scale device.
Albany project lead and MERA manager Wiebke Ebeling said the community could be proud of the M4, built entirely in Albany using locally sourced materials and labour by local companies.
“This project will put Albany on the map for renewable energy from ocean waves and for innovation in a new, diversified regional economy,” she said.
“It is very exciting, now and going forward.”
Marine Energy Research Australia and UWA Oceans Institute director Christophe Gaudin said he hoped the project would kickstart more renewable wave energy projects in Albany.
“The site here is just magnificent, it’s energy all year long, very consistent and very dispatchable in a grid system,” he said.
“So then the idea is to take advantage of the unique ocean engineering research capabilities in WA to a global scale”.
Throughout August we will see the buoys and anchor installed and the electrical infrastructure assembled and added to the frame prior to deployment in late August, then towed to the site in early September.
