Adelaide Advertiser
Wednesday 28/11/2007 Page: 54
A NEW lobby group representing the geothermal energy industry has been established in Adelaide. The Australian Geothermal Energy Association (AGEA) will hold its inaugural annual meeting in December, when it will determine the key policy issues it will take to the federal and state governments.
Petratherm managing director Terry Kallis said the industry had developed greatly in the past few years, and the 29 firms which made up the sector now needed a separate voice to other renewable energy producers. "There was a clear requirement coming from the developers to have a policy voice," Mr Kallis said. "At the AGM we'll pick the top three or four issues common to the industry and start working through those." Mr Kallis said the new Federal Labor Government's goal to increase renewable energy use to 20 per cent by 2020 was a boon to the industry.
"The geothermal industry has the potential to be the lowest-cost renewable in that market and it's bigger than what was being proposed by the former government," Mr Kallis said. "In that timeframe Labor policy is clearly no nuclear energy stations, so there isn't any other form that I'm aware of that would provide base load apart from geothermal." Mr Kallis said he expected strong investment in the sector to continue.
"It's still early days, we're still yet to discover where some of the best plays are." Mr Kallis said Geoscience Australia, the federal geoscience information organisation, had been given a significant amount of money to look at providing information on Australia's subterranean heat flow, which would be provided to developers.
Former Renewable Energy Generators Australia chief executive Susan Jeanes is interim secretary, and Geodynamics managing director Gerry Grove-White is interim chairman of the AGEA.
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