Malaga-based MAK Industrial Water Solutions has been awarded the contract to manufacture and construct Carnegie Wave Energy's desalination pilot plant.
The pilot plant, once completed, will have the capacity to supply up to one third of the freshwater demand on Garden Island, where it is being installed for Australia's largest naval base, HMAS Stirling.
The contract for constructing the onshore plant building and civil works will be awarded by Carnegie separately.
The desalination pilot plant is supported by a $1.27 million AusIndustry grant from the Clean Technology Innovation program, and is part of Carnegie's wave energy project.
The project, which generates zero greenhouse gas emission electricity through pumping pressurised water from underwater wave energy devices, is supported by $13.1 million in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency's Emerging Renewables program.
Carnegie desalination project manager Edoardo Sommacal said the desalination pilot plant would demonstrate for the first time globally the production of both power and fresh water from the ocean's waves.
"We are very pleased to have reached this important milestone of design completion and to now move into desalination project manufacture and construction," he said.
MAK Water is scheduled to complete the project in the first half of next year.
In July, MAK Water acquired Brisbane-based Clearmake Water Treatment and Recycling Solutions after experiencing 50 per cent year-on-year growth since 2009.
The company is headed by Perth businessmen Andy Byk, former Coogee Chemicals chief executive Peter Hood, Ascent Capital director Gary Steinepreis, and former Deloitte corporate finance managing director Tom Henderson.
