Australia's Oceanlinx Enters Receivership Following Accident, Missed Deadlines

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources Australia (Perth, Australia)--Wave-power pioneer Oceanlinx Limited (Sydney, Australia) has entered receivership during the installation of its 1-megawatt (MW), single-unit wave energy converter. The commercial-scale unit was damaged en route to its destination: Port MacDonnell, South Australia. Oceanlinx had planned to locate the wave energy converter up to four kilometers offshore Port MacDonnell. It would extend 10 meters above the water surface.

Oceanlinx developed its patented oscillating water column (OWC) technology for the project's shallow water flagship unit, greenWAVE, which was to be demonstrated commercially at the Port MacDonnell facility. OWCs act like a piston and cylinder. As waves rise within the OWC, it replicates the action of a piston, driving a column of air ahead of it and through the turbine. Oceanlinx planned to install the 24-by-21-meter, 3,000-ton unit and transfer the electricity that it generated to the grid via a subsea cable. When operational, the unit could have produced enough electricity to power 1,000 homes.

Following the accident at sea in March, Oceanlinx failed to meet installation deadlines, which caused funding problems for the company.

In April 2014, the board of directors appointed Rahul Goyal and Cassandra Mathews of KordaMentha Restructuring as the receivers and managers of the company. This followed the appointment of David Ross and Brent Kijurina of Hall Chadwick as administrators. Goyal said that it was too early to decide the final strategy of the receivership. The company's six employees will keep their jobs for the time being. They were working to resolve the state government's safety concerns.

The future of the project is uncertain. It could be sold to another organization, scrapped to be sold off to cover debts, or salvaged and installed.

The $8 million project included $4.4 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, under the Emerging Renewables Program. Oceanlinx has built and operated three wave-energy projects, each located at Port Kembla, 100 kilometers south of Sydney, Australia.

The company, formerly known as Energetech, had been named by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation as one of the world's top 10 renewable energy investment opportunities. It was also named Australia's most promising and advanced home-grown wave energy technologies by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in 2012.

View Plant Profile - 3066507
View Project Report - 300082896

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and nine international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.