Coincidentally, this is the second article in two days we have posted on wave energy. This article is by Bill Meldrum, from the Portland Observer. I say coincidentally because wave power is yet to be commercialised and operate at scale. It has long been a complaint that good renewable energy technologies are invented in Australia and developed overseas. Hopefully that will change soon!
WAVE energy company Oceanlinx is waiting for funding grants from the Federal or State governments before it starts on a small number of demonstration units off the Portland coastline.
The company has also foreshadowed that a successful operation of the small number of demonstration units would likely trigger an expansion of the project to a generating capacity of between 30 and 100 megawatts.
Oceanlinx chief executive officer Ali Baghaei told the Portland Observer on Wednesday the project, which has been on the drawing board for several years, had not been cancelled, but was awaiting awarding of grant funding from a suitable government authority.
“The Oceanlinx wave energy project at Portland is contingent on accessing Victorian and or Australian government grant funding for the first phase of the project,” he said.
“Before proceeding any further, Oceanlinx is awaiting the imminent announcement of an expected Victorian state fund for renewable energy grants, as well as a similar federal fund.
“Once this funding is acquired, the first phase will entail a single demonstration unit, or small number of units, with a capacity of one to three megawatts,” Mr Baghaei said.
“Once funding is secured, this first phase of the project is expected to be completed in 12-18 months, assuming permits and approvals are forthcoming,” he said.
He said the successful operation of the first phase would likely motivate the expansion of the project into the second phase — an array of units likely to have a generating capacity of between 30 and 100 megawatts.
“The funding of this phase will probably be drawn primarily from project financiers,” he said.
“The timing of the completion of the project is expected to be three to five years after the completion of phase one.”
Oceanlinx is one of several companies with wave energy proposals off the Portland coastline.
yes2renewables.org 
Wave energy has been a concept around for at least 50 years. In that time, the concept has failed to become well established. A fabulous resource, if only a way could be found to harness the power.
In WA a company,Carnegie Wave Energy (http://www.carnegiecorp.com.au/ ) has developed a new system that ticks a lot of boxes. It’s demonstration plant is in the construction process and apparently testing is meeting all expectations.
Hopefully Oceanlinx has a system that will do the job.
Thanks for the comment, I didn’t post this because I particularly endorse Oceanlinx – equally with the AquaGen technology; I hope some or all of these are made commercially viable because they could provide a great boost to the energy grid; but as you point out, they have to actually pass all the tests.