Wave energy developer Carnegie Wave Energy (ASX: CWE) is pleased to provide an update on the latest activities in relation to its commercial scale CETO wave unit test program.
The in-ocean testing of the commercial scale CETO unit’s buoyant actuator (BA) has been successfully completed at the Australian Marine Complex south of Perth, Western Australia. The in-ocean testing successfully verified key aspects of the BA unit including its dry weight, buoyancy, ballasting and hydrodynamic motion performance. The BA is now undergoing preparation for mobilisation ahead of offshore CETO system deployment and testing at Garden Island.
Carnegie has now also taken delivery of the onshore pump and hydraulic system test rig. The rig, located at Carnegie’s Fremantle facility, cradles the commercial scale CETO pump horizontally where it is stroked by a hydraulic actuator powered by a 400kW hydraulic power unit. The pump has been fitted into the rig and the rig will now undergo commissioning. Testing will commence following the completion of commissioning and the delivery of the hydraulic energy management module due in the next 2 to 3 weeks.
The test program involves stroking the pump under various loads and velocities using sinusoidal profiles that simulate wave conditions.
Instrumentation mounted on the pump and hydraulic module will record the system performance during both onshore and offshore testing.
Additionally, the offshore instrumentation system that controls the CETO3 unit and relays data to shore is complete with delivery to Carnegie of the communications buoy and associated mooring system. The buoy houses the transmitters that send the collected data back to shore via 3G infrastructure.
Testing of this equipment is underway onshore with offshore deployment of the buoy expected in the next 2 to 3 weeks.
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Source: carnegiecorp, January 18, 2011