Geothermal boost

Courier Mail
Friday 2/5/2008 Page: 40

FOUR years after creating laws to put Queensland in the box seat to develop green energy from underground rocks, the State Government has issued its first exploration permit. It marks another step in a long-delayed process to search for geothermal energy, which aims to tap power via heat in underground rocks. South Australia has had geothermal exploration for years. Exploration tenders in Queensland started in 2006 but no one has begun drilling.

A key hang-up has been interpreting native title laws. "Some question whether the definition of mining in (the laws) includes geothermal exploration," Queensland Energy Minister Geoff Wilson said. The state has spoken to federal counterparts to "get a national solution." One successful first round tenderer, Geodynamics, is disputing Queensland's legal interpretation of needing a "right to negotiate" process. This process has not been required in SA.

Queensland's first exploration permit has been issued to Granite Power, which won a tender in May last year and will now proceed without the right to negotiate process. Native title laws only affect a small portion of its block, which was ring fenced from the rest of its area. Mr Wilson said by December, Granite agreed to proceed on that basis.

But Mr Wilson said there was concern at the time of appearing inconsistent about pushing ahead with exploration permits while discussing the legal issue at a federal level. More recently, Queensland formed the view to go ahead regardless. Two other tenderers, treated as part of the one group with Granite, have started the native-title process, which preceeds granting of permits.