Supporting renewable energy projects using high resolution hydrographic and geophysical survey techniques, Garden Island, Western Australia

摘要

With increasing public awareness on climate change issues and increasing pressure on governments to expand renewable energy programmes, the time appears optimum for the development of new marine renewable energy technologies and programmes. Carnegie Wave Energy is an Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed company that has developed and patented the CETO wave energy technology over the last 10 years. This technology is designed to convert the oscillating motion of ocean waves into zero-emission renewable power. The CETO technology has the added advantage of producing desalinated freshwater as a byproduct, making this a truly green energy technology. Marine GeoSolutions was contracted by Carnegie Wave Energy to undertake a geophysical site investigation of potential deployment sites offshore of Garden Island for the installation of the planned CETO six power generation arrays and the cable route that would connect the arrays to the hinterland. While the geophysical site investigation employed standard off the shelf survey technology to achieve these objectives, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how important renewable energy projects can benefit from the careful and skilful application of hydrographic and geophysical survey technologies. The geophysical survey programme included the simultaneous acquisition of multibeam bathymetry, sidescan sonar, magnetic profiling and sub-bottom profiling data. The true benefit of the geophysical survey, however, was achieved through the application of careful and meticulous data processing techniques by a small group of dedicated individuals to produce a set of high resolution survey products. This was achieved by careful combination and rendering of all the datasets to arrive at a comprehensive 3D geographic information system (GIS) data model that provides valuable insights into the physical environment in the areas of interest.