Adelaide Advertiser
Saturday 6/3/2010 Page: 87
Panax Geothermal's Penola project, which is on track to start production by late 2011, could produce electricity for less than the cost of wind power, managing director Bertus de Graaf said yesterday. Panax Geothermal aims to become the first grid-connected geothermal energy producer in Australia, with a 5.9-MW demonstration plant set for completion by the end of 2011. The company aims to ramp this up to 60mW soon after.
Dr de Graaf said yesterday the company's first deep geothermal well, Salamander-1, was at a depth of about 2900m, and would reach the target depth of 4km by mid-March. Unlike the geothermal projects in the Cooper Basin, which are targeting hot, dry rocks, the Panax Geothermal project is targeting existing hot aquifers. The drilling is currently near the top of the target reservoir. Dr de Graaf said the well would cost about $15 million to drill, with $7 million from the Federal Government's geothermal drilling program contributing to its completion.
The company also was using data from 28 historic, deep petroleum wells drilled in the region. This would have cost about $100 million to drill, had the company had to do it alone. Panax Geothermal will assess the data from Salamander-1, with a view to making an investment decision for the 5.9mW power plant this year. "Further expansion could lead to a geothermal power station more than 10 times larger by 2014," Dr de Graaf said.
Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson, who officially declared the project open yesterday, said geothermal energy was vital if the nation was to achieve its target of deriving 20% of its power from renewable sources by 2020. "That's pretty challenging," he said. "At the moment, about 8.2% of our energy actually comes from renewables, predominantly hydro power - we have little capacity to actually grow hydro power.
"The early growth is going to be in wind power, but the real breakthrough we need is going to be in areas such as geothermal because it's baseload, reliable power." The Salamander-1 well is targeting water at temperatures of 150-200C at depths of 3.5km to 4km. The project remains 100% owned by Panax Geothermal, but the company said in its latest quarterly report it was looking for joint-venture partners.
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