wave hello

"Rotto's waves could help power nation."

Now that's the sort of headline we like at Rotto Bloggo. Of course the motion of the ocean around the beautiful island could be the electrification of the nation. Glorious Rottnest energy leads to enlightenment across our magnificent country!

There's a bit of a catch: it wasn't only Rotto waves that were under the microscope. Also in the frame are Kangaroo Island (SA) and Eden in NSW.

'More than a third of the nation's power could come from the ocean, according to a report that examined waves at Rottnest...the report's authors, consultants RPS MetOcean, found waves had the potential to generate four times existing national electricity output.'

It's all done with with subsea buoys attached to pumps on the seabed. The bouys wave to the motion of the ocean and drive the pumps, which pressurise seawater, which is then piped to land where it powers electicity-generating hydroelectric turbines.

'Carnegie Corporation, a private company which wants to build a wave farm in southern Australia, says about 10 per cent of this power could be tapped economically.

'Carnegie is studying potential sites for a wave farm.

'Carnegie managing director Michael Ottaviano said the world's oceans had huge potential to generate electricity.

"This report further supports Carnegie's view that Australia has the world's best wave energy resources,'' Dr Ottaviano said.

Sounds good to us. The accompanying pic (from Stefan Landsberger's fabulous site of Chinese propaganda posters) could be Photoshopped without too much trouble to reflect Rottnest's glorious power-generating role.