Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Funding for Chatham Islands wave energy project

Updated at 5:16 pm on 30 July 2010

A Chatham Islands company has received $2 million of government funding to harness wave energy off the islands' southwest coast.

Chatham Islands Marine Energy Ltd wants to construct two 110-kilowatt turbines, using the motion of the waves to generate electricity.

The project comes under the Marine Energy Deployment Fund, which has allocated $8 million over four years to exploring wave and tidal technology.

Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee says the project could help other isolated areas of New Zealand as well as some Pacific islands.

The scheme still needs to get resource consent, and is the third to get money since the fund was set up in 2007.

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