A study by economic modeling firm McLennan Magasanik Associates has concluded that as much as 40 percent of the Australia’s 2020 target for renewable energy could be obtained from enhanced geothermal resources. The study found that the cost of generating energy from geothermal sources is expected to decline to become the cheapest form of renewable energy by 2020.

The South Australian Government said earlier this month that twenty-three companies are planning invest more than A$700 million in geothermal exploration in the State between 2002 and 2013. Geodynamics and Petratherm are the among companies seeking to tap super-hot granites lying as deep as 5 kilometers underground in South Australia.