Boom, Crash.......Electricity!!!

Most people have heard and used the phrase "Boom Crash Opera" to describe the sounds of a tropical thunderstorm that occurs so frequently in our spring and summer months or in the wet season in the more northern regions of our continent. Of course the boom and the crash refer to the thunder strikes depending on how close they are and it could be easily argued the whole performance is nature's own opera, dramatic and visually stunning.

The same can be said for another of nature's wonders, the sea. Coming in many different shapes and sizes and up to 10 or more metres in height, the constant boom and crash of wave after wave on the shore, especially during a storm is just as dramatic and awe-inspiring. But that's not the only thing these two phenomenon have in common. The thunderstorm is nature's own huge electricity generator, evaporating water, freezing it and generating electricity from the friction between the rising and falling of the ice beads formed in the cold stratosphere. Thanks to a local Australian innovative company so too can the energy from waves be harnessed and turned into clean, renewable electricity.

This company is Energetech, a leader in power generation from waves and the first to be building a commercial scale wave powered electricity generator off the breakwater of Port Kembla Harbour right here in the heart of the Illawarra!! When fully operational, it will have to capacity to generate 1 Giga watt hours(GWh) per year which translates as enough energy to power approximately 300 homes. Imagine how much that will contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Absolutely wicked!!!

When you visit Futureworld there are several presentations on the subject and because the wave generator is being built so close by there will also be many opportunities to talk directly with the people involved in the design and construction via lectures and seminars organised by us. But this isn't all you will find here. Far from it. Futureworld is delighted to have a working wave tank where research students from Wollongong University in association with Energetech are developing the wave generation technology using the wave tank and a scale model prototype generator complete with all the fittings. You can't get any closer than that, watching breakthrough technology being developed in front of your very eyes!!! How excitement!!