Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has announced $770,000 funding for Swinburne University of Technology to develop modelling on the performance of wave energy farms.
The wave energy industry is emerging world-wide and there are few multiple device installations operating today. Predicting the best way to arrange future projects will help to better understand how different technologies will behave in certain circumstances. The modelling aims to discover the best ways of positioning wave arrays so that devices move in synergy with one-another, creating greater efficiencies.
Swinburne is collaborating with interested Australian wave energy companies, which will sit on a project steering committee and have offered funding support and staff resources. This will help to ensure the project produces outcomes that are useful to the wave energy industry. CSIRO is providing data from Carnegie’s Perth Wave Energy Project, also being collected for the ARENA supported CSIRO Wave Atlas, to assist with improving the accuracy of the mathematical modelling.
The research will be used to create a publically accessible, user friendly software tool for gathering site-specific information and may also be used to obtain regulatory and planning approvals. It has the potential to be used around the world by wave energy technology developers to identify the best designs for ocean wave energy devices at selected sites.