The inaugural meeting and launch of The Australian Geothermal Energy Association (AGEA) took place on Wednesday 21st in Adelaide.

The South Australian Energy Minister, the Honorable Pat Conlon MP, performed the official launch.

News from Geodynamics Ltd on Tuesday 20th was good. Habanero 3 was drilling ahead at 12¼” diameter and had reached a depth of 3265 m.

Importantly, “the revised bottom hole assembly is working well.”

On Tuesday 20th, Petratherm Ltd stopped the presses (and trading) prior to releasing the astonishing news that the Federal Coalition had promised $50m specifically to PTR “to accelerate the commercialisation of Petratherm’s Paralana Geothermal Energy Project in South Australia.”

This promise was apparently made in “recognition that the Paralana Project represents the most commercially advanced geothermal project in Australia.” Like all election promises, however, the ultimate deliverability depended on the outcome of the Nov 24 election.

“Climate Change 2007”, the fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, was released in Spain on Saturday 17th.

Its predictions of potentially catastrophic climate change make very sobering reading. However, in a very detailed assessment of potential mitigation strategies, EGS geothermal rates barely a passing mention.

Priority development of known conventional geothermal resources is recommended as a priority.

The Age newspaper in Melbourne ran a little story on Saturday 17th reminding us that even way down at the non-sexy end of the spectrum, geothermal energy developments are becoming popular.

The story highlighted a ground source heat pump (GSHP) system being installed on a property at Point Lonsdale, which improves air-conditioning efficiency over conventional systems by extracting heat from the ground in winter, and pumping heat underground in summer.

Business is starting to boom in the GSHP sector.

Beardsmore G, 2007.
Geothermal energy potential of the Northern Territory.
Northern Territory Geological Survey, Record 2007-004.

Abstract

The Northern Territory is part of the Central Australian Heat Flow Province andpossesses all the fundamental requirements for geothermal systems that could beused for hot rock or deep hot aquifer geothermal electricity generation.Crystalline basement rocks beneath the NT’s basins are capable of generatinghigh surface heat flows in many areas and adequate thermal insulation isprovided by appropriate rock types in overlying sedimentary successions in anumber of basins. 

Green Rock Energy announced on Friday 16th that it has been granted five new geothermal exploration licences, totalling 1938 km2, around the Upper Spencer Gulf in South Australia.

GRK intends to assess the suitability of the geology in the new GELs to provide geothermal energy for a reverse osmosis desalination plant.

On Wednesday 14th, Brisbane registered Hot Rock Ltd became the 9th ASX listed geothermal energy company. HRL holds four exploration permits in the Otway Basin in Victoria, and is “evaluating several projects in Europe, Asia and the USA.”

Its shares finished the first trading day at a premium…up to 28.5c from the list price of 25c.

HRL were overshadowed somewhat on Wednesday 14th by the Federal Opposition’s announcement that, if elected on Nov 24, it will commit a whopping $500m “to help develop and commercialise renewable energy.”

$50m of this is earmarked to support geothermal energy drilling, as announced on 30 May (see HDRPL Newsletter #08.)

The Northern Territory Geological Survey released a new NTGS Record on Tuesday 14th.

The record [Beardsmore, G., 2007. Geothermal energy potential of the Northern Territory. Northern Territory Geological Survey, Record 2007-004] summarises the geothermal systems elements in the numerous sedimentary basins throughout the NT.