Courier Mail
Friday 27/3/2009 Page: 44
Brisbane-based geothermal energy developer Panax Geothermal says a new study shows its major geothermal power project has the potential to produce Australia's cheapest clean energy.
Panax managing director Bertus de Graaf, pictured, said a pre feasibility study conducted internally and backed by US-based consultancy GeothermEx indicated its Penola project, in South Australia's Otway Basin, could generate baseload owes for a total cost of $63MW hour. That would put it on a par with the current cost of gas-fired power.
However, geothermal plants don't generate planet-warming greenhouse gases, whereas gas-fired plants do and will be subject to significant costs when the Federal Government soon launches a mechanism that will put a market price on per-tonne greenhouse gas emissions.
Dr de Graaf said the $63/MWh total output cost from its planned phase-two geothermal plant compared with $55/MWh for black coal, $62/MWh for gas-fired power and $107/MWh for wind and solar thermal projects. Panax is scheduled to start drilling this September its first production well, which is expected to lead to the development of a grid connected demonstration plant by late 2011.
The Penola project is located close to the national grid network and will harness heat from an already known hot sedimentary aquifer that will drive a turbine to produce baseload or continuous power. The project has a measured geothermal resource of 11,000 petajoules - just 1000PJ is sufficient to power a 100MW power station for 30 years, the company says. It says it has been approached by energy provider companies but won't discuss specifics at this stage.
Brisbane is home to two geothermal power developers Panax and GeoDynamics both of which are focused on developing geothermal resources in states other than Queensland, mainly in South Australia. The SA and NSW governments have had legislation and licensing in place since about 2000 that provides a clear process for geothermal development. But similar processes are not in place in Queensland.
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