Harnessing renewable energy from ocean waves is one of Australia’s greatest opportunities in the transition to resilient electricity grids. Led by Marine Energy Research Australia (MERA) at The University of Western Australia, the Albany wave energy project has reached a major milestone.
The M4 Wave Energy Demonstration Project will design, construct, deploy, operate, and decommission a surface riding wave energy converter in King George Sound, the outer harbour in Albany on WA’s south coast.
The $4 million project supports local MERA staff and has engaged head contractor SMC Marine in Albany to coordinate six local businesses as the pioneering supply chain in a new regional ‘Blue Economy’.
Earlier this month, the MERA headquarters in Albany welcomed two WA Government delegations – Linda Dawson, Deputy Director General of the WA Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation and Julie O’Brien, Director of Industry Development.
The delegation spent several hours with an overview of the M4 project, the ocean engineering research capabilities of MERA, the Albany field site and experimental facilities at UWA in Perth along with a tour of the steel fabrication workshop.
Just a 10-minute drive out of town, at MCB Construction, specialists in the manufacture of structural steel, steel beams are being welded for the forward frame and trailing arm of the 22-metre long M4 superstructure. In the same industrial area, the four floater buoys have been assembled, each large enough to fit a full-grown adult, until they are filled with sand for ballast.
The involvement with local regional Albany businesses business left an impression on both the WA delegation and The Hon. Stephen Dawson – Minister for Emergency Services; Innovation and the Digital Economy; Medical Research; Volunteering – who visited the site days later as part of the WA Community Cabinet in Albany.
There is a strong sense of opportunity that Albany, with M4 standing as its gateway project, has the potential to become a world knowledge-sharing and innovation hub and wave energy demonstration site.
The only component sourced from overseas, the highly bespoke power generator, will be transported to Albany in March and integrated on the M4 superstructure.
Depending on the summer Easterly winds in King George Sound, the M4 will be deployed in September 2024 for a data collection period of six months. Real-time wave data will be made publicly available, and energy data will be used to model the contribution of wave energy in a potential coastal microgrid for nearby customers such as the Albany Shellfish Hatchery.
