Kalbarri ‘better option’ than Albany for wave energy

Kalbarri homes will be drawing on energy from the sea if Member for Moore Shane Love is successful in his lobbying.

Mr Love today called on the State Government to divert more than $15 million funding for a wave energy plant at Albany to Kalbarri.

He said while there was uncertainty surrounding connection of the Albany wave project to the South West energy grid, it made sense to reallocate the State Government project funds to bolster energy supplies in Kalbarri.

Announced on October 6 last year, the $15.75 million grant to Carnegie Clean Energy was to see a large-scale wave energy converter device off the Albany coast.

It was to produce about one megawatt (MW) of electrical power to feed into the South West Interconnected System.

Mr Love said a report in the Albany Advertiser on March 1 claimed that uncertainty surrounded the Albany wave generators ultimate connection to the grid at the time the State Government grant was announced.

“Recent confirmation that related company, Energy Made Clean would be part of the team delivering a microgrid power supply for Kalbarri is welcome news,” he said.

“But I am concerned that there is insufficient local generation to sustain Kalbarri in the event of outages lasting more than a few hours.”

Mr Love said it was vital that Kalbarri was not subjected to the lengthy outages, sometimes lasting for days, that had plagued it in recent years.

“One megawatt would represent around one third of peak load in Kalbarri on most days,” he said.

“When added to other existing and proposed sources of generation in the area we could well see the end of damaging power outages in the town.

“Conversely 1MW of generation would have a negligible impact in a town the size of Albany.”

“Given that the projects - the Kalbarri microgrid and the Albany wave plant - are both being delivered by Carnegie (Energy Made Clean), I call on the government to reconsider.”