More seek to harness waves energy

By SIMON COLLINS

Mounting concern about global warming has prompted more interest in wave energy in the last 18 months than there would have been for the previous 15 years, says a senior Niwa scientist.

Dr Andrew Laing and colleagues at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research have won Government funding to measure wave and other renewable energy sources for remote Maori communities in Northland that are outside the national electricity grid.

The institute had also done consulting work for "people who see it as an opportunity and people who have contacts with overseas wave generators".

Renewable energy sources such as waves are attracting investors all over the world because of the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that aims to create a market for carbon dioxide emission reductions, giving businesses an incentive to switch to renewable energy sources.

Tauranga-based TrustPower's generation manager, Roger Burchett, said his company was negotiating with parties in Japan that might buy the carbon credits that would be created by expanding TrustPower's wind farm in the Tararua Ranges near Palmerston North.

Energy Minister Pete Hodgson has told the Wind Energy Association he has had approaches from three overseas companies, including Japanese and Dutch businesses, wanting to buy wind-farm credits.

But the Government has yet to decide whether it will allow power companies to sell credits, because that would mean the credits could not be counted to reduce New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions.

Dr Laing said New Zealand's exposure to Southern Ocean westerlies gave it some of the best wave-energy potential in the world.

nzherald.co.nz/climate

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