Australia’s Wave Energy Sector Holds Great Potential

In Australia, wave energy is quickly emerging as a potential and viable renewable energy source for generating electricity. The World Energy Council has identified the southern margin of Australia as one among the world’s promising sites towards wave-energy generation.

Wave-energy developers are faced with one problem, however, that of previous estimates about wave-energy potential that are based upon data in deep ocean water, whereas, the systems for wave-energy generation are positioned typically near to the shore. Near-shore regions in Australia possess a great potential for wave-energy.

In the long term, Australia is committed towards decreasing 60% of greenhouse gas emissions of the year 2000 level by 2050. The Australian government is aiming to produce 45,000 GWh of additional electricity annually from renewable energy sources by the year 2020. When 10% of the available wave energy generated from a stretch of 1,000 km gets converted to electricity, the 2020 renewable energy goals will be reached with the help of wave energy alone.