Protean Wave Energy buoy. Image: Supplied.A demonstration wave farm is being built off Bunbury, south of Perth.
Protean Wave Energy, a company created last month from Stonehenge Metals through a back door ASX listing, has been granted a license by the Southern Ports Authority for a trial of up to six months.
The company says it will install up to 30 buoys at the Port of Bunbury, a key step in the commercialisation process of the Protean wave energy converter. Electricity in the Greater Bunbury sub-region is mainly from coal-fired stations at Muja and Collie.
The buoys create compressed air which drives a motor, which then powers a conventional electrical generator.
Data collected during the trial period will support a pre-feasibility assessment of a commercial pilot wave farm planned for the Island of Hanimaadhoo in the Maldives.
The Protean Wave Energy Convertor is designed to convert all six degrees of wave motion into a usable form of energy.
Carnegie Wave Energy, another ASX listed wave energy company based in Perth, earlier this month bought 35% of solar and microgrid business Energy Made Clean for $4.5 million.
Carnegie’s system converts ocean swell into renewable power and desalinated freshwater.
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