Italian energy giant Enel invests in Carnegie’s wave technology

The wave energy technology that started it all for ASX listed renewables developer Carnegie Clean Energy is the focus of a $1.6 million deal, between the Perth-based company and the renewables arm of global energy giant Enel Group.

The deal will see Enel Green Power invest €1 million ($A1.6 million) in the research and development of Carnegie’s CETO wave power technology, and collaborate in its deployment “across a number of milestones.”

In a statement on Tuesday, Carnegie said the agreement would also see Carnegie and EGP work together to identify, develop and invest in opportunities for CETO across Australia, Europe and internationally.

EGP will also become a technical advisory committee member of both Carnegie and the Wave Energy Research Centre run by the University of Western Australia with support from the WA state
government.

Carnegie, which began its life as Carnegie Wave Energy, has continued working towards its goal of building large-scale wave farms while also turning the company’s focus to hybrid renewable and battery storage microgrid projects in Australia and abroad.

In February, the company won a tender to build a wind, solar and battery storage micro-grid in Kalbarri that will be the largest of its type in Western Australia.

The 4.5MW/2MWH battery storage will work with local wind and solar generation to boost reliability for the town, which suffers frequent outages because of its dependence on a wobbly link with centralised generation further south.

And in March, the company revealed plans to develop a 10MW solar farm, with up to 10MWh of battery storage, in an industrial area of in the south west of Western Australia.

In wave energy, the company revealed in November 2017 that it had boosted the nominal capacity of its latest CETO unit – the CETO 6 – to 1.5MW, up from 1MW, to make it more cost competitive with other mainstream renewable technologies.

The Perth-based company was also developing a new, networked design for foundations for a large-scale wave farm – a project it has been working on in partnership with the University of Western Australia.

As noted, Enel Green Power (EGP) is the renewable energy division of the Enel Group, one of the largest energy companies in the world, with around 42,000MW of renewables across wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower.

Carnegie’s managing director, Dr Michael Ottaviano, said he hoped EGP’s “deep experience” of the global renewables market would help Carnegie to tailor its CETO technology to the needs of future utility customers.

“Our belief in the potential of CETO remains undiminished,” Dr Ottaviano said in a statement.

“Wave energy remains the last great untapped renewable resource globally. Like all power technologies, its commercialisation requires the collaboration and consistent commitment of innovators, governments, research and industry leaders of the likes of Enel Green Power.”

EGP’s CEO and head of global renewables, Antonio Cammisecra, said Australia’s marine energy resource represented one of the most attractive of its kind available.

“The agreement with CCE, a company that has been active in marine energy research for a decade, allows us to leverage on one of the most disruptive energy generation technologies with good potential for further developments,” he said.