A new geothermal heat flow map published by the Victorian government shows that the State has over ten times more geothermal potential than previously estimated.
The new heatflow map highlights the state’s north and west regions as the most promising areas for geothermal energy production, showimg that large parts of Victoria have heat flow values as high as those found in South Australia, which has attracted much geothermal exploration activity.
The geothermal atlas showed there was high heat flow in an area bordered by Stawell, Horsham, Ouyen and Mildura, as well as an area from north-west of Melbourne to Castlemaine and Ballarat.
Until now most geothermal energy data in Victoria had been compiled from temperature data collected during previous petroleum drilling. However, the picture was incomplete, with large areas of the state where no data had been collected. Most of the new data was collected by taking advantage of the existing network of groundwater bores and new measurements from bores drilled in the past year.
The Australian Federal Government has announced that the CSIRO will receive $47.3 million for the development of solar and geothermal energy technologies to power a radio-astronomy observatory and its supporting computer centre.
The funding will support renewable energy infrastructure projects for the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory and the Pawsey High-Performance Computing Centre for Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Science in Perth.
The Pawsey Centre in Perth, which is located at the CSIRO’s Australian Resources Research Centre, will become one of Australia’s largest direct heat geothermal demonstration sites. Researchers plan to address the heating and cooling requirements, not only of the SKA data centre, but the entire geosciences facility. They will also conduct research on the performance and longevity of geothermal wells.
Both the Murchison Observatory and the SKA computing facility are part of the Australasian bid to host the $2.5 billion Square Kilometre Array, which involves 20 countries and will investigate galaxy evolution, dark matter, and the existence of life. Australia and New Zealand are in competition with a Southern African SKA bid, involving several Afrcan coutries. A decision is expected to be made in 2012.
According to CSIRO chief executive, Megan Clark, the newly announced projects will also accelerate the Australian development of renewable energy technology for uses beyond the SKA. She said that "This project will also allow the practical application of research by scientists and students from all over Australia in renewable energy, as well as in astronomy, computer science, engineering, geology and environmental management."
Artisi’s impression of the Murchison radio telescope (via CSIRO)
Current "hot rock" geothermal projects rely on heat produced by uranium decaying in granite formations. Now a team of geophysicists at the University of Melbourne is proposing a different approach which, they say, has huge potential for power generation in Victoria.
In some places, mineral formations form an insulating blanket which traps a layer of heat relatively close to the Earth’s surface. One of the most effective insulators is carbon, in the form of coal. And brown coal, which has a high proportion of water, is the most effective form of coal.
Victoria has huge deposits of brown coal under which there are areas of rock at temperatures of up to 200°C. In fact, the LaTrobe Valley, in which there is a blanket of brown coal 500 metres thick covering the surface, is regarded as having the best potential in the world for extracting this type of geothermal energy.
The University of Melboune team proposes pumping carbon dioxide down drill holes up to 5 kilometres deep and using the heat in the gas when it returns to the surface to drive turbines. Carbon dioxide is preferred to water because it is lighter and requires less energy to pump.
Another advantage of the LaTrobe Valley is that the area already has an electricity distribution infrastructure for its existing coal-fired power stations.
According to University of Melbourne geoophysics Professor Mike Sandiford, a test plant could be operating in the LaTrobe Valley within four years for an investment of just $100 million.
Delta Electricity and Macquarie Generation are planning to set up two 1,000 megawatt fossil fuel based power plants in New South Wales because they claim that the State does not have the adequate renewable energy potential.
In fact, NASA estimates put solar readings in New South Wales at 6kw/m²/day which is equal to the solar radiation received in Southern California and similar to Spain. Southern California and Spain are the largest solar power production regions in the world.
The New South Wales Department of Industry and Investment website states that "NSW has an excellent wind resource. Background wind speeds in NSW are comparable to northern Europe, where a large portion of international wind generation is currently installed". Yet, only about 150 megawatts of wind power generation is currently installed or under constrruction in the State.
A geothermal anomaly south of Muswellbrook in the State’s Hunter Valley is believed to have similar potential, although on a smaller scale, for extracting energy from hot dry rocks as South Australia’s Cooper Basin which is regarded as one of the best such sites in the world.
And, of course, the State boasts one of the world’s great hydroelectric schemes in the Snowy Mountains.
The Australian budget for 2010-11 has committed the Government to invest $652 million over four years in a new Renewable Energy Future Fund, which will form part of the Government’s expanded $5.1 billion Clean Energy Initiative which includes the previously announced $1.5 billion Solar Flagships program and the $2 billion Carbon Capture and Storage Flagships program.
Two new projects will be funded under the Renewable Energy Development program:
$32 million for CS Energy to build a 23MW solar boost to coal-fired turbines at Kogan Creek, near Chinchilla in western Queensland; and
$60 million for N.P. Power Pty Ltd to build a 40MW concentrated solar thermal demonstration plant at Whyalla, South Australia, using "Big Dish" technology.
Five new solar reasearch and development projects will be funded through the Australian Solar Institute:
$5.0 million for a project run by the University of New South Wales to overcome the performance limitations of commercial solar cells;
$2.25 million for a project run by BT Imaging Pty Ltd to improve the performance of photovoltaic manufacturing;
$4.95 million for an Australian National University led applied research project in collaboration with industry to help develop the next generation of solar cells;
$2.25 million for a project run by Sapphicon Semiconductor Pty Ltd to develop a high-efficiency, integrated solar module on a transparent substrate; and
$4.0 million for a project run by CSIRO and the Australian National University to develop advanced solar thermal energy storage technologies.
A new Resource Exploration Rebate of company tax will be available for geothermal energy exploration. Large areas of Australia are being explored for geothermal energy.
The Government also plans to impose a new 40% tax (replacing some State fees which will be refunded) on "super profits" by mining companies. Since coal and gas miners are the most "super profitable" Australian miners, this can be seen as largely a form of carbon tax.
The Victorian Government has allocated $25 million for exploration associated with a new geothermal energy project at Anglesea. The project could become the site of the State’s first geothermal energy plant.
The Victorian Resources Minister, Peter Batchelor, said that "We’ll have the possibility of building a geothermal demonstration plant very close to the existing electricity grid. It will mean that we’ll have the largest demonstration geothermal project in Victoria, and one that can be connected to the grid."
Two "hot rock" geothermal projects are to receive Australian Government funding.
Geodynamics Ltd was awarded $90 million to be staged over the development period of its geothermal energy project in South Australia’s Cooper Basin. The final payment will be made upon commissioning of a 25 megawatt power plant, expected to be achieved in 2013.
Geodynamics believes that its hot fractured rock project has the potential to produce almost twice the energy of all of the oil reserves of the United States and that it could produce enough energy to supply all of Australia’s power needs for 70 years with no greenhouse gas emissions and at about the same price as coal-fired power.
Petratherm Ltd has been awarded $62.76 million for use at its Paralana geothermal project in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges. The project, which is a joint venture with Beach Petroleum and TRUenergy, is aiming to develop Australia’s first "base load" geotheraml power plant with a capacity of more than 260 megawatts.
Origin Energy has agreed to buy a 70% interest in the geothermal licence held by Eden Energy for an area of South Australia’s Cooper Basin.
The licence covers an area of 1,280 square kilometres adjacent to the area being developed by Geodynamics for the production of electricity from hot rocks. Eden Energy intends to harness the hot rock energy for the production of hydrogen as well as electricity generation.
Panax Geothermal has completed a study that shows the cost of power from a geothermal energy plant at its Penola site would be comparable to wind energy. Penola is in the south-east corner of South Australia near Mount Gambier.
Although there are no surface signs of geothermal activity, such as mud pools, hot springs or geysers, in the area, there is a deep reservior of water at temperatures above 170ºC. The reservoir was discovered while drilling for gas, which has been produced from the region for the past 15 years.
The company believes that the site has the potential to produce as much electricity as two coal-fired power stations and has the added advantage of being close to the electricity grid.
The company is hoping to begin drilling in October.
CEO, Bertus de Graaf, says that "We are really waiting now for the contract drilling rig to arrive, the preparations for the drilling are in progress at (the) site. The drilling of that well will take two months or less and we expect within about three months of completion of the drilling we will be to make a decision on the development of the first development plant."
The NSW Government has given a $10 million grant for the development of a commercial geothermal project in the Hunter Valley to Geodynamics Limited.
Geodynamics is currently developing a power generation plant using energy from underground hot rocks in the Cooper Basin in South Australia. In a joint venture with Origin Energy, the South Australian project is expected to be powering the outback town of Innamincka by the end of March next year.
The company is now planning to apply the knowledge and expertise that it has gained in the Cooper Basin over the past five years to the development of the Hunter Valley project.
Geodynamics believes that its Hunter Valley tenements at Bulga and Muswellbrook hold significant geothermal resources. The first stage of thie project will be the drilling of a 2km exploration well in early 2009 to confirm temperature gradients, followed by the commissioning of a small geothermal power plant in the Hunter Valley in 2012.
