Australian Projects Overview


Australia is an excellent place to develop geothermal energy due to its geologically stable conditions and vast resources.  This section is designed to expand on that concept and provide visitors a summary of the projects currently underway.

Australia is a great place to develop geothermal energy projects

Australia has the hottest rocks, closest to the surface on Earth outside of volcanic areas and the geothermal industry is expanding due to a number of reasons: 

  • Excellent Enhanced Geothermal Systems and Hot Sedimentary Aquifer resources, with numerous projects in progress;
  • Proof of concept was successfully established at an EGS (hot fractured rock) project in the Cooper Basin; South Australia in March 2009.
  • Security of exploration and development leasing.
  • Strong State and Federal Government support.
  • A growing community of companies, researchers and government agencies working together to maximise progress at least cost - Australian Geothermal Energy Group (AGEG).
  • One voice for the industry - the Australian Geothermal Energy Association (AGEA); and
  • World leading experts in the geothermal field.
 

A few small geothermal projects already exists

  • In Australia, one project is producing electricity - the Birdsville Organic Rankine Cycle Geothermal Power Station (Birdsville plant) which produces 80kW, enough energy to power the town of Birdsville.  The Birdsville plant is Australia’s only Hot Sedimentary Aquifer project currently producing electricity.  The Birdsville Plant was originally built by the Capricornica Electricity Board and is now owned by Ergon Energy.  For more information about the Birdsville plant, visit www.ergon.com.au.
  • The town of Portland in Victoria used geothermal energy to heat more than 19,000 m2 of municipal buildings, a motel and the town swimming pool.  This project was commissioned in 1983 and closed down in April 2006.  Total capacity was 10.4 MW and involved naturally hot groundwater (58◦C) being extracted from a 1400 m deep bore at the rate of 90 litres / second.  For more information, visit the Glenelg Shire Council website www.glenelg.vic.gov.au.

  • Peninsula Hot Springs Bath House and Spa Centre in Victoria is a tourist destination where natural hot water flows from aquifers more than 600 metres below the surface.  The water temperature within the pools is between 37 – 43◦C and the pools are reputed to have healing properties. For more information, visit www.peninsulahotsprings.com. 
Australian geothermal development pipeline
Deep drilling projects currently underway

The following Australian geothermal companies have commenced deep drilling of exploration and production wells:

Panax Geothermal Limited

On 1 February 2010, Panax Geothermal Limited (Panax) announced commencement of drilling its first deep well, known as Salamander 1, at its Penola Project on the Limestone Coast area of South Australia. 

Salamander 1 is a pioneering well within the Australian geothermal sector.  It is the first well to test a Hot Sedimentary Aquifer (HSA) resource. 

Panax Geothermal advised it had finished drilling Salamander-1 well on 16 March 2010 and would now proceed logging the well.

Panax has other projects underway both nationally and internationally.  To read more information about Panax's activities and the status of drilling at their Penola Project, visit the Panax website: www.panaxgeothermal.com.au. 

Petratherm Limited

On 17 June 2009, Petratherm Limited (Petratherm) and joint venture partners Beach Petroleum and TRUenergy Geothermal announced commencement of drilling the Paralana 2 deep injection well at their Paralana site in South Australia. 

Paralana 2 was completed in December 2009 and cased at a depth of 3,725 m.  A second deep well will be drilled late in 2010 so that circulation testing can be conducted for proof of concept.  The Paralana Project will use Enhanced Geothermal Systems technology.

Petratherm’s aim for the Paralana project is to build a 7.5 MW geothermal power plant and build over time to a 30 MW plant.

Petratherm has other projects underway both nationally and internationally.  To read more information about Petratherm's activities and the status of their Paralana Project, visit the Petratherm website: www.petratherm.com.au. 

Geodynamics Limited

During April 2009, Geodynamics Limited (Geodynamics) announced an incident at its Habanero 3 well in the Cooper Basin, South Australia.  The Habanero 3 well was intended to power up the company’s 1 MW Pilot Plant. 

A full review of practices was undertaken and now Geodynamics plans to return to operations in March 2010 after receipt of new casing materials for recasing of the company’s Jolokia 1 well.

Geodynamics Limited (Geodynamics) is Australia’s most advanced geothermal energy developer, having drilled three deep wells at its Habanero site, one at Savina and one at Jolokia all within the Cooper Basin, South Australia.  The company is also the only Australian Company to have achieved “Proof of Concept” to date.

Geodynamics plans to decide whether to build a 25 MW commercial demonstration plant by December 2011 and if positive, commission the plant by December 2013.

Geodynamics has other projects underway in other states of Australia.  To read more information about Geodynamics and the status of their Cooper Basin project, visit the Geodynamics website: www.geodynamics.com.au.

Realising the potential of geothermal energy

The Australian geothermal industry is focused on delivering low cost, reliable, base-load, emission free energy to our market place - and all Australian geothermal energy companies are working toward realising this long-term goal.

Federal Government support shown to date for geothermal energy includes:

  • A $50 million Geothermal Drilling Program (GDP) to assist geothermal project developers achieve “Proof of Concept” with a maximum of $7m per project.
  • A $300 million Renewable Energy Demonstration Program (REDP) which is available to renewable energy developers which satisfy the application merit criteria. 
  • An additional 45,000GWh to the Renewable Energy Target (RET) aimed at taking total renewable energy production to 60,000GWhs or 20% of the electricity market by 2020.
  • An increased REC penalty - increasing in 2010 from $40/MWh to $65/MWh.
  • A review of National Electricity Market (NEM) rules to enable  infrastructure development that can deliver the clean energy from renewable energy resources to consumers in line with the Government’s RET and CPRS policy commitments. 


Government grant recipients

A number of grants have been announced to date for both State and Federal Government funding initiatives.  An outline of the grants awarded under major schemes is below.  Please note that we have not detailed every individual grant received by every geothermal project on this page:

Renewable Energy Demonstration Plant funding recipients

  • Petratherm Limited has been awarded $62.8 million for development of a commercial demonstration plant at their Paralana site.
  • Geodynamics Limited has been awarded $90 million for development of a commercial demonstration plant at their Cooper Basin site. 

Geothermal Drilling Program funding recipients - round 1

  • Panax Geothermal Limited was awarded $7 million for their Limestone Coast Geothermal Project (Penola, SA) which is designed to deliver the first proof that conventional (HSA) geothermal resources within Australia's sedimentary basins can be used to generate large amounts of geothermal power.  For more information, visit www.panaxgeothermal.com.au. 
  • Petratherm was awarded $7 million for the company's Paralana Geothermal Energy Project (Paralana, SA), applying the Heat Exchanger within Insulator (HEWI) model.  For more information, visit www.petratherm.com.au. 

    •

Geothermal Drilling Program funding recipients - round 2

  • Greenearth Energy Limited has been awarded $7 million for drilling a deep well as part of their Geelong (VIC) Geothermal Power Project.  For more information, visit www.greenearthenergy.com.au.
  • Green Rock Energy Limited has been offered a $7 million grant under the Federal Government’s Geothermal Drilling Program to fund the Company’s Perth (WA) Urban Geothermal Energy Project.  For more information, visit: www.greenrock.com.au.
  • Geodynamics Limited has been offered a $7 million grant for drilling a deep well as part of the company’s Hunter Valley (NSW) Geothermal Project.  For more information, visit www.geodynamics.com.au.
  • Hot Rock Limited was offered a $7 million grant to undertake a two well appraisal drilling and testing program at its flagship “Hot Sedimentary Aquifer” (HSA) Koroit Project in the Otway Basin, south west Victoria. For more information, visit www.hotrockltd.com.
  • Torrens Energy Limited was offered a $7 million grant to which will be directed toward achieving proof-of-concept at the company’s Parachilna Geothermal Play in South Australia.  For more information, visit www.torrensenergy.com.  

State Govt of Victoria - Energy Technology Innovation Strategy (ETIS)

  • Greenearth Energy Limited have been awarded $25M for Stages 1 and 2 of the Geelong Geothermal Power Project, visit www.greenearthenergy.com.au.

A Growing Industry

Interest in the development of Australian geothermal projects is really heating up. Some fast facts on the industry are outlined below:

  • Since 2001, 48 companies have applied for 386 licences covering 360,000km2 on a variety of models.
  • There are now 17 Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) listed Geothermal Licence holders with more about to come.
  • Work programs for geothermal exploration activities are set to exceed AUD 1.5 billion by 2013.
  • An Australian Code for Reporting Exploration Results, Geothermal Resources and Geothermal Reserves has recently been published to ensure consistency and transparency across the industry.

(Page last updated 19 February, 2010) 

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