Bombora Wave Power has received Au$181,000 (~$127,000) of funding support from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to complete a detailed ‘Levelised Cost of Energy’ (LCOE) study for its wave energy converter.
The study aims to confirm that the Bombora WEC will make an important contribution in diversifying the electrical energy supply matrix.
The project will focus on the current design for a commercial scale Bombora WEC, a 1.5 MW device comprising two 60 metre arms resting on the sea floor at a depth of 10 metres, Bombora’s press release reads.
Electricity from the device would be transferred to shore via a subsea cable for supply into the electrical grid.
Sam Leighton , Bombora’s CEO, said: “The Cost of Energy study is a crucial component in our commercialisation roadmap, ahead of deploying a full-scale Bombora WEC. We are very pleased to have ARENA’s support at this critical juncture as we confirm our competitiveness in the renewable energy sector.”
The $362,000 study, due for completion in March 2016, includes design reviews and production costs involving key suppliers for all major components of the system. According to Bombora, previous techno-economic investigations indicated the Bombora WEC would be able to match LCOE of other renewable energy sources.
To remind, Bombora Wave deployed a scaled prototype of their wave energy device off Melville, Australia early in September, 2015.
Bombora Wave Power is an Australian wave energy player which has developed a wave energy system that utilises a large membrane energy harvester to collect, concentrate and modulate the wave energy through the use of an air circuit.
ARENA was established by the Australian Government as an independent agency to make renewable energy technologies more affordable and increase the amount of renewable energy used in Australia.