Australia’s Huge Ocean Energy Opportunity
Catching the waves: it’s time for Australia to embrace ocean renewable energy
Mark Hemer, et. al., October 17, 2016 (The Conversation)
“…Australia arguably possesses the world’s largest wave energy resource, around 1,800 terawatt hours. Most of this is concentrated in the southern half of the continent…To put this in context, Australia used 248 terawatt hours of electricity in 2013-14...Waves aren’t the only renewable power source in our oceans. The daily movements of the tides shift vast amounts of water around the Australian coast, and technology for conversion of tidal energy to electricity is more mature than any wave converters…[There are also the less mature technologies of thermal energy conversion] and energy captured from our large ocean currents…To keep us on track to meet our international commitments, members of Australia’s Climate Change Authority recently proposed a target of 65% by 2030. This would require a rapid, large scale transition to alternative emission-free energy systems...Wind and solar are currently leading the way, but we’ll need other technologies…[W]ave power has only a third of the variability of wind…[and can] be forecast three-times further ahead…[T]he lifetime costs of ocean energy technologies are high…[but experience suggests that costs for wave energy will decrease…” click here for more
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