West Australian
Wednesday 20/8/2008 Page: 12
Companies wanting to search for so called hot rocks fear they could miss out on their share of $50 million in Federal funding because of State Government delays in issuing exploration licences. Federal Minister for Resources and Energy Martin Ferguson yesterday launched a program aimed at boosting the Australian geothermal industry, a business some say could one day provide a big percentage of the nation's energy needs.
Geothermal producers pump water kilometres below ground where it is heated by thermal rocks, with the resulting steam used to generate electricity. The method is relatively environmentally friendly and new data from the Government's geological advisory body, Geoscience Australia, says that if just one per cent of the nation's geothermal energy was extracted it would equate to 26,000 times Australia's total annual energy consumption.
Mr Ferguson said the Government was offering $50 million to geothermal groups in a bid to kick-start the industry, with companies eligible for grants of up to $7 million each. But Alan Knights, executive director of geothermal company Green Rock Energy, said companies wanting to explore WA for geothermal energy might not get their slice of the millions on offer because the State Government was taking, so long to issue exploration licences.
He said South Australia had been issuing geothermal exploration licences for almost five years, yet WA had yet to issue any. The State Government's first geothermal acreage program has received 64 bids from nine parties. Winning bidders were to have been announced this month but it is thought the calling of the State election delayed the process.
Mr Knights said it would likely take companies another two years to figure out whether the acreage they had been allotted had any potential, in which time the lion's share of the Federal money might have gone to Eastern States projects." A spokesman for WA Resources Minister Francis Logan said Government assessments of acreage bids had been completed and notification of successful bids could be made within a week.
The Rudd Government has set a target for 20 per cent of Australia's electricity generation to come from renewable sources by 2020. Details of the geothermal assistance program came on the same day Opposition trade spokesman Ian Macfarlane reopened the debate on nuclear energy, saying the nation must embrace uranium to get serious about reducing carbon emissions. Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson attacked Labor for refusing to allow the nation to capitalise on high uranium prices by blocking its sale to countries such as India. Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett said the Liberals' nuclear energy policy was a mess.
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