People interested in the Port Fairy Pilot Wave Energy Project attended a meeting on Thursday night at Port Fairy’s Victoria Hotel, hosted by BioPower Systems CEO Tim Finnigan and engineer Francois Flocard.

The pair spoke about the $21 million pilot that will test the waters for commercialisation of bioWAVE, an invention developed by renewable energy technology company BioPower Systems.

Mr Finnigan said the renewable energy system extracted energy from the waves and turned it into electricity on board the unit. 

Electricity is then sent to shore via a cable that lies on the sea bed. The unit is expected to feed 250 kilowatts of renewable energy into the national grid.

“It doesn't produce any pollution or emissions, it just takes the energy from the waves and turns it to electricity,” Mr Finnigan said. 

The 12-month project will begin once the 26-metre steel is lowered by two cranes from a ship into the water in early December.

Representatives from the Sydney-based company visited the site and met community members on Wednesday. 

The site is five kilometres west of Port Fairy at Taylors Bay. The unit will be four kilometres from program partner Southern Ocean Mariculture.

“This pilot is the first ever test of our technology. We've done extensive mobile testing and dry factory trials and lab testing but this is the first ocean test of our full technology,” Mr Finnigan said. 

“It's a very exciting time.

“South western Victoria is a real prime spot for wave energy development. You've got one of the best wave climates in the world and it’s ideally suited for utilising this resource which is very abundant in this area.”

A 300-metre exclusion zone will be declared around the unit. “If you look off-shore you'll see two buoys. These are the navigation buoys to let mariners know there is a hazard.”