Aotearoa Wave and Tidal Energy Association

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The Aotearoa Wave and Tidal Energy Association (AWATEA) is a New Zealand organisation established in 2006 to promote renewable energy from marine sources. This includes energy from tides, waves and ocean currents. [1]

New Zealand Constitutional monarchy in Oceania

New Zealand is a sovereign island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses—the North Island, and the South Island —and around 600 smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 2,000 kilometres (1,200 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long period of isolation, New Zealand developed a distinct biodiversity of animal, fungal, and plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland.

Renewable energy energy that is collected from renewable resources

Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources, which are naturally replenished on a human timescale, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves, and geothermal heat. Renewable energy often provides energy in four important areas: electricity generation, air and water heating/cooling, transportation, and rural (off-grid) energy services.

Tidal power Technology to convert the energy from tides into useful forms of power

Tidal power or tidal energy is a form of hydropower that converts the energy obtained from tides into useful forms of power, mainly electricity.

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Organisations involved in New Zealand include Genesis Energy, Meridian Energy and Crest Energy. Several projects are being developed, including Kaipara Tidal Power Station and another in Cook Strait.

Genesis Energy Limited

Genesis Energy Limited, formerly Genesis Power Limited, is a New Zealand publicly listed electricity generation and electricity, natural gas and LPG retailing company. It was formed as part of the 1998–99 reform of the New Zealand electricity sector, taking its generation capacity from the breakup of the Electricity Corporation of New Zealand (ECNZ) and taking retail customers from three local power boards in the Lower North Island.

Meridian Energy

Meridian Energy Limited is a New Zealand electricity generator and retailer. The company generates the largest proportion of New Zealand's electricity, generating 35 percent of the country's electricity in the year ending December 2014, and is the fourth largest retailer, with 14 percent of market share in terms of customers as of December 2015.

Kaipara Tidal Power Station

The Kaipara tidal power station is a proposed tidal power project to be located in the Kaipara Harbour. The project is being developed by Crest Energy, with an ultimate size of 200MW at a cost of $600 million.

Speaking at the 2007 conference, Jeanette Fitzsimons, then NZ Government spokesperson for Energy Efficiency stated that: "I remain very positive, and excited, at the prospects for marine energy in NZ. It is a perfect fit with our history as a maritime nation; the NZ love of the sea and sea going craft; the goals of the NZ Energy Strategy to get as close to 100% renewable electricity as we can; and to the Prime Minister’s aspirational goal to be carbon neutral and truly sustainable." [2]

Jeanette Fitzsimons New Zealand politician

Jeanette Mary Fitzsimons is a New Zealand politician and environmentalist. She was the co-leader of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand from 1995 to 2009, and was a Member of Parliament from 1996 to 2010.

See also

New Zealand has large ocean energy resources but does not yet generate any power from them. TVNZ reported in 2007 that over 20 wave and tidal power projects are currently under development. However, not a lot of public information is available about these projects. The Aotearoa Wave and Tidal Energy Association was established in 2006 to "promote the uptake of marine energy in New Zealand". According to their 10 February 2008 newsletter, they have 59 members. However, the association doesn't list its members.

The electricity sector in New Zealand uses mainly renewable energy sources such as hydropower, geothermal power and increasingly wind energy. 82% of energy for electricity generation is from renewable sources, making New Zealand one of the lowest carbon dioxide emitting countries in terms of electricity generation. Electricity demand has grown by an average of 2.1% per year from 1974 to 2010 but decreased by 1.2% from 2010 to 2013.

Approximately 40% of primary energy is from renewable energy sources in New Zealand. Approximately 80% of electricity comes from renewable energy, primarily hydropower and geothermal power.

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Cook Strait strait between the North and South Islands of New Zealand

Cook Strait is a strait that separates the North and South Islands of New Zealand. It connects the Tasman Sea on the northwest with the South Pacific Ocean on the southeast, and runs next to the capital city, Wellington. It is 22 kilometres (14 mi) wide at its narrowest point, and is considered one of the most dangerous and unpredictable waters in the world.

The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand is a left-wing political party in New Zealand. Like many Green parties around the world it has four organisational pillars: ecology, social responsibility, grassroots democracy, and nonviolence.

RenewableUK, formerly known as the 'British Wind Energy Association' (BWEA), is the trade association for wind power, wave power and tidal power industries in the United Kingdom. RenewableUK has over 660 corporate members, from wind, wave and tidal stream power generation and associated industries.

Wave power Transport of energy by wind waves, and the capture of that energy to do useful work

Wave power is the capture of energy of wind waves to do useful work – for example, electricity generation, water desalination, or pumping water. A machine that exploits wave power is a wave energy converter (WEC).

The Pelamis Wave Energy Converter was a technology that used the motion of ocean surface waves to create electricity. The machine was made up of connected sections which flex and bend as waves pass; it is this motion which is used to generate electricity.

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Wave farm The installment of several wave power devices in one place

A wave farm – or wave power farm or wave energy park – is a collection of machines in the same location and used for the generation of wave power electricity. Wave farms can be either offshore or nearshore, with the former the most promising for the production of large quantities of electricity for the grid. The first wave farm was constructed in Portugal, the Aguçadoura Wave Farm, consisting of three Pelamis machines. The world's largest is planned for Scotland.

Renewable electricity in New Zealand

Renewable electricity in New Zealand is primarily from hydropower. In 2015, 83% of the electricity generated in New Zealand came from renewable sources. In September 2007, former Prime Minister Helen Clark announced a national target of 90% renewable electricity by 2025, with wind energy to make up much of that increase.

The European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) Ltd is a UKAS accredited test and research centre focusing on wave and tidal power development based in the Orkney Islands, UK. The Centre provides developers with the opportunity to test full-scale grid-connected prototype devices in unrivalled wave and tidal conditions. The operations are spread over five sites:

Awatea is a Māori term meaning bright pathway. It may refer to:

Marine energy or marine power refers to the energy carried by ocean waves, tides, salinity, and ocean temperature differences. The movement of water in the world’s oceans creates a vast store of kinetic energy, or energy in motion. Some of this energy can be harnessed to generate electricity to power homes, transport and industries.

Gareth Hughes (politician) New Zealand politician

Gareth Thomas Llewelyn Hughes is a New Zealand politician and member of the Green Party. He took a seat in Parliament as the next person on the Green party list following the retirement of Jeanette Fitzsimons in February 2010.

Tidal stream generator a type of tidal power generation technology

A tidal stream generator, often referred to as a tidal energy converter (TEC), is a machine that extracts energy from moving masses of water, in particular tides, although the term is often used in reference to machines designed to extract energy from run of river or tidal estuarine sites. Certain types of these machines function very much like underwater wind turbines, and are thus often referred to as tidal turbines. They were first conceived in the 1970s during the oil crisis.

Renewable energy in Russia

Renewable energy in Russia mainly consists of hydroelectric energy. The country is the sixth largest producer of renewable energy in the world, although it is 56th when hydroelectric energy is not taken into account. Some 179 TWh of Russia's energy production comes from renewable energy sources, out of a total economically feasible potential of 1823 TWh. 16% of Russia's electricity is generated from hydropower, and less than 1% is generated from all other renewable energy sources combined. Roughly 68% of Russia's electricity is generated from thermal power and 16% from nuclear power.

The Saltire Prize, named after the flag of Scotland, is the national award for advances in the commercial development of marine energy.

Solar power in New Zealand

Solar power in New Zealand currently contributes 0.2 percent to the country's overall electricity generation. In the 2017 calendar year, an estimated 74 GWh of solar-generated electricity was contributed to the national grid, out of a total of 42,911 GWh.

References

  1. ↑ "Aotearoa Wave and Tidal Energy Association". AWATEA. Archived from the original on 2 October 2008. Retrieved 3 October 2008.
  2. ↑ Jeanette Fitzsimons (15 March 2007). "AWATEA Conference 2007". New Zealand Parliament. Retrieved 7 March 2009.
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