Carnegie and Blue Economy CRC launch MoorPower project

MoorPower is a CETO-derived wave energy product designed for moored vessels and offers a solution to the challenge of securing clean and
reliable energy for offshore activities, reducing reliance on diesel generation. The initial target market for MoorPower is offshore vessels such as feeding barges for the aquaculture sector, but the future market is broader and includes the many other offshore operations that require energy.

Over the next two years, Carnegie will design, install and operate a scaled demonstrator of the MoorPower technology just offshore from its headquarters and research facility in North Fremantle, Western Australia. This $3.4m MoorPower Scaled Demonstrator project will be delivered with funding support from the Blue Economy CRC and in close collaboration with a consortium of partners including two of Australia’s largest aquaculture companies, Huon Aquaculture and Tassal Group.

Academic and industry partners include DNV GL Australia, Advanced Composite Structures Australia, University of Tasmania, Climate KIC/Australian Ocean Energy Group, AMC Search and University of Queensland. The project is supported by $1.35m cash from the Blue Economy CRC, $265,000 from Carnegie and $1.8m of in-kind support from all the project partners.

MoorPower was developed by Carnegie with the goal of decarbonising the energy needs of offshore operations, particularly in aquaculture. As the aquaculture sector moves operations further offshore, operations such as feeding barges will no longer have access to shore-based power and the reliance on diesel generators comes with many associated costs, carbon emissions and environmental risks, including fuel storage and
spillage risks while refuelling offshore. This challenge presents an opportunity to utilise wave energy, an untapped energy source constantly
flowing around offshore facilities. Ocean Energy Europe (OEE) forecasts significant growth for wave energy with a €653b market potential by 2050.

MoorPower can be deployed for any type of moored vessel and is not limited to fish farming. Carnegie will continue to collaborate with key aquaculture companies to understand their requirements, constraints and challenges. Additional aquaculture technology providers, such as
companies that build feeding barges, are also supportive of the MoorPower project.

Carnegie’s vision for the MoorPower product is that the technology will be an integrated solution with other offshore renewable energy systems including hydrogen and batteries. Carnegie has incorporated aspects of its proprietary core CETO wave energy technology into MoorPower.

The core CETO technology has a submerged buoy that sits a few metres below the surface of the ocean, moving with the waves. This orbital motion drives a Power Take-Off (PTO) system that converts the wave motion into electricity energy. MoorPower is a spin-off from CETO; it takes key CETO components such as the PTO and offers an alternative configuration for a new market application.

This new product launch is consistent with Carnegie’s focus on the development and commercialisation of proprietary technologies to efficiently and cost-effectively convert wave energy into electrical energy. Carnegie’s technologies have the potential to revolutionise marine renewable power, deliver innovative solutions to ocean industries and support global efforts towards decarbonisation and a more sustainable environment.

“We look forward to the opportunities the MoorPower technology presents to the aquaculture sector and the expansion into high energy offshore sites utilising clean and reliable energy solutions,” Blue Economy CRC chief executive Dr
John Whittington said. “The project allows the opportunity for collaboration between experts in the field led by
Carnegie Clean Energy together with project partners across the country.”

Mark Asman, head of aquaculture, Tassal Group, said “As population increases, wild harvest stocks decrease, and farming land and freshwater is restricted, aquaculture is providing a source of renewable protein farmed through sustainable practices.

“Partnerships like this ensure our industry continues to deliver the benefits of highperformance sustainable innovation, research and development (R&D) and change practices.

“Through the introduction of novel oceanic renewable energy sources, aquaculture will continue to offer healthy seafood produced with a low carbon footprint.”

Carnegie CEO Jonathan Fiévez, added: “We are extremely pleased by this collaboration with the Blue Economy CRC and leading industry partners which have come together around MoorPower, a new wave energy product that delivers solutions to challenges encountered in the aquaculture sector.

“MoorPower reduces or removes the reliance on diesel and provides clean, reliable, predictable energy to support the growth of a diverse sustainable blue economy. The technology also expands our market reach, while complementing the technical advancements being made on our CETO technology. We are excited to expand our product portfolio with the addition of MoorPower and are eager to progress and deliver both the CETO and MoorPower products to the market.

“The elegance of the MoorPower aquaculture application for Carnegie is that these barges constantly move with the waves already and we have the electricity customer and an existing prime mover (the infrastructure being moved by the waves) in one pre-existing package. We are essentially optimising our CETO power take-off and controller to suit the application and provide a competitive offering.

“Wave energy has the benefits of consistency and predictability, and in some places, wave may be the only renewable energy that is practical. With an enormous resource that is largely untapped, wave energy is only set to grow, and working on joint initiatives like the MoorPower project, will accelerate and strengthen the advancement of these technologies on a global scale.”