Geothermal Energy

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2009-06-18T13:34:00Z

Australia.to has a report on an upgrade to the low temperature geothermal power plant at Birdsville in Queensland - Bligh invests up to $4.3 million in new geothermal power station for Birdsville.

Birdsville"s landmark geothermal power station will be upgraded to produce more clean energy for the remote south western Queensland community.

Mines and Energy Minister Stephen Robertson said today the Bligh Government is investing up to $4.3 million to help replace ageing equipment at the Ergon Energy-owned and operated plant. The funding will provide a 50 per cent subsidy for the project which will invest in new, leading edge geothermal technology.

"The Birdsville geothermal power station is the only one of its kind in Australia to tap into this clean renewable energy source to provide emission-free power," Mr Robertson said. "The plant draws its energy from near-boiling water taken deep from within the Great Artesian Basin that supplies water for the town. The power station currently generates about 30 per cent of Birdsville"s energy supplies. It"s also helping the local environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by about 400 tonnes a year and diesel fuel consumption by approximately 160,000 litres." ...

The Birdsville power station was first commissioned in 1992 and remains Australia"s only operational geothermal power station capable of electricity generation 24 hours a day. The energy source comes from hot water taken from the Great Artesian Basin at a depth of 1,280 metres. This hot bore water provides a "free" energy resource, which would otherwise be wasted when water is cooled before use.

The ABC reports the local mayor is very enthusiastic about the plant - More backing sought for outback geothermal power.

he Diamantina Mayor says he would like to see more Government support for the geothermal sector, because he says it is the most sustainable power source. The Queensland Government has committed $9 million for a new geothermal plant to be built at Birdsville in the state"s far west.

Mayor Robbie Dare says a large portion of the town"s electricity is already provided by geothermal sources, using water taken from the Great Artesian Basin.

"It"s been successfully running there for 20 years and it runs 24-hours-a-day, unlike wind or solar," he said. "It"s so cheap. Fuel is one of the dearest commodities to run a generator right out here in the outback."

"This just runs off the heat of the water, once it"s up and running it"s just virtually maintenance. It should be put in all over Australia. This new plant will almost run the town again, or will run the town again."

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2009-04-05T00:43:00Z

Adelaide Advertiser
Wednesday 1/4/2009 Page: 56

HOT rocks explorer GeoDynamics has successfully proved its ability to extract heat from hydraulically stimulated hot fractured rock to create power. The completion of proof of concept, which was validated by U.S.-based independent expert GeothermEx, marks the end of Stage 1 of GeoDynamics" business program in the Cooper Basin.

It comes after the completion of the closed loop test at the Habanero project. GeoDynamics will now move forward with plans to develop a commercial demonstration plant in line with stage 2 of its business plan. Shares surged 10.5% , or 11.5c, to $1.21.

The proof of concept was key to its application for funding from the Federal Government"s $500 million Renewable Energy Development Program, which must be submitted by mid April The company had demonstrated resource definition, ability to drill and complete wells, hydraulically stimulate fractures and develop a substantial reservoir volume, managing director Gerry Grove-White said.

"Commercial demonstration will, among other things, focus on improved drilling performance and well costs," he said. Modelling of wells theoretically located at the extremities of the Habanero stimulated zone showed that the wells were capable of extracting more than 40MW of thermal energy for more than 20 years, he said.

GeoDynamics plans to build Australia"s first commercial-scale geothermal power plant and have it operating by 2012. GeoDynamics is also close to commissioning its 1MW pilot plant and, together with joint venture partner Origin Energy, expects to supply electricity to Innamincka by mid this year. "The famous Innamincka Hotel will soon be serving icy-cold beer chilled using hot rock geothermal energy," Mr Grove-White said.

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2009-04-04T01:29:00Z

Renewable Energy World has an article on some large scale efforts to map geothermal power resources in the western US - Western U.S. Entities Move Quickly on Geothermal Mapping.

Several large geothermal resource mapping projects are heading toward conclusion so that finally, the power source can be more accurately considered in siting new electricity transmission lines for renewable power development.

Given the Obama administration"s investment focus on new transmission line development, the result of the mapping efforts should be a relatively rapid increase in the number and size of commercial-scale geothermal projects.

The states of California and Nevada, along with the Western Governors Association, are moving rapidly to improve the mapping of geothermal resources in their regions, in part to facilitate the approval and construction of several new transmission lines in the West. And over the next few months, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) expects to unveil the data supporting its new assessment of mid-and high-temperature geothermal resources, which was released in summary form last fall.

These efforts are expected to lead to four or five new transmission lines in the West, with construction on at least one to begin as early as next year, reckons John McCaull, the western states representative for the Geothermal Energy Association, in Sonoma, CA.

One key resource mapping effort near completion is that of the joint Western Governors Association-U.S. DOE Western Renewable Energy Zones Initiative (WREZ), for which the technical committee is expected to identify final zones in late April, having considered the environmental impact of multiple zones in over a dozen western U.S. and Mexican states, as well as Canadian provinces.

By this fall, the WREZ then expects to complete a conceptual transmission line report, which would lead to discussions with line developers. An important aspect of the WREZ mapping is that all temperature range geothermal resources are being considered, including low-temperature enhanced geothermal system (EGS) sources, McCaull notes. WREZ also is mapping wind and solar resource sites as part of its renewable focus mandate.

Similarly, California"s Renewable Energy Transmission Initiative (RETI) is completing a state-wide survey of geothermal resources with an overlay of best-option transmission corridors minimizing environmental impact. Elsewhere in California, the California Geothermal Energy Collaborative is developing high-resolution three-dimensional geothermal mapping, and expects to release its first area map by the end of this year, including high-, medium- and low-temperature sources, says William Glassley, the executive director of the group, in Santa Fe. "Transmission line locations are an integral part of what we are doing," he says.

In Nevada, a program similar to RETI is underway, focusing on northern and central regions of the state, says McCaull. Like California, Nevada primarily has considered proven, or higher-temperature resources for mapping.

Both states are expected to complete their surveys by late April, about six months ahead of the WREZ effort in terms of overlaying potential transmission lines, McCaull notes.

The USGS may begin releasing data from its new geothermal survey this spring, including both mid- and high-temperature resources. The prior survey included only high-temperature resources, says Colin Williams, a geothermal researcher in the Menlo Park, CA, agency office. Some low-temperature resources, like those in Alaska and other northern states — where a high differential between surface water and subsurface water temperatures exists — also will be included in the survey, he notes,

As a result of these cumulative efforts, four potential corridors have emerged as contenders for renewable power transmission in the West, McCaull suggests. These projects include:

* Sunrise Powerlink, from the Imperial Valley to San Diego; this corridor has already received California approval.

* Green Path, from the Imperial Valley to Las Vegas.

* A North-South Nevada line to Las Vegas. Nevada Energy is already in the planning stages for a $30 million transmission line in Churchill County, which would serve both Vulcan and Ormat geothermal projects.

* Northern California, potentially linking Oregon and Nevada to the San Francisco Bay area, serving not only geothermal but also wind and solar generators.

Apart from these four likely corridors, Vulcan Power of Bend, Ore., also is moving forcefully with its plan for a transmission line from northwest Nevada to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The company"s G3 power line project is being touted as a means of delivering a "green gigawatt" of energy, and likely can expect the support of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), who has recently announced a proposed bill to build transmission lines for the delivery of renewable energy to urban areas. Reid has suggested a consolidation of transmission line authority among the two-hundred-plus government agencies now involved to a single federal agency.

New geothermal plants are being considered along each of these renewable power transmission corridors under development. As city, county and regional utilities seek to increase their renewable energy source portfolios, geothermal projects will likely provide an increasing volume of power, along with wind and solar.

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2009-02-08T01:58:00Z

The Guardian has an article on opposition to a potential geothermal power boom in Japan, from traditional hot spring owners worried they will be put out of business - Japanese spa town in a lather over geothermal plans. Hopefully the 2 industries will find a way to coexist.

A deep breath is all that"s needed to appreciate why Kusatsu is ideally suited to lead Japan"s quest for new sources of renewable energy.

As the steam rises from myriad holes in the ground, the air is filled with the unmistakable stench of sulphur. The pong is inescapable - it hangs on your clothes for days - but the volcanically heated water that creates it is the lifeblood of this spa town 90 miles northeast of Tokyo.

As Japan seeks new ways to honour its Kyoto protocol commitments on CO2, Kusatsu"s bathers are up in arms over plans to tap into rich reservoirs of geothermal energy, a move they say threatens their inalienable right to soak in the restorative waters of a natural spa.

In April a government panel of industry experts and academics is expected to call for substantial investment in geothermal plants for the first time in more than two decades.

The envisioned new generation of power plants will tap into Japan"s vast supply of heated water and steam, nestling deep below ground and sustained by the country"s 108 active volcanoes. The result, the government says, will be an inexhaustible supply of cheap, clean energy that will also ease the country"s $183bn a year dependence on Middle East oil.

Geothermal developers insist that power plants and Japan"s thousands of spas - or onsen - can happily coexist. But the 7,400 people of Kusatsu, more than 90% of whom depend on the tourist trade for their living, are not convinced.

The fear that energy development will rob the town of its precious supply of hot, mineral-rich water has propelled them to the forefront of the anti-geothermal movement. Their nemesis is the nearby village of Tsumagoi, whose mayor has proposed the construction of a geothermal plant 4km from its nervous neighbour. ...

Kusatsu"s revered hot springs are fed by water resting deep underground and kept at a piping-hot 54C by the 2,160-metre volcano Mount Shirane. The water, which gushes out of the ground at a rate of 34,000 litres a minute, is then cooled for the benefit of the three million bathers who visit the town every year.

Unlike many other spas, the water rises to the surface naturally and is used to heat schools, homes and roads during the town"s bitterly cold winters. The spa was discovered 1,800 years ago, according to local legend, and by the Edo era the shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune had Kusatsu water delivered to the capital.

Though faced with centuries of tradition and legions of irate bathers, Japan"s power companies view geothermal power as a potential bonanza at a time when plans to dramatically increase nuclear power have fallen foul of accidents and opposition from towns near the proposed sites of new reactors.

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2009-01-14T12:39:00Z

The NYT has an editorial on the promise and risks of geothermal power - Geothermal Future.

To most people the word “geothermal” means hot springs and geysers — like parts of Iceland or Yellowstone National Park where water is heated by the presence of magma near the surface of the earth. But the earth’s heat lies below everywhere, and it offers a virtually untapped energy reserve of enormous potential with a very short list of drawbacks.

In 2006, a panel led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology surveyed the prospects for electricity production from enhanced geothermal systems. Its conclusions were conservative but very optimistic. The panel suggested that with modest federal support, geothermal power could play a critical role in America’s energy future, adding substantially to the nation’s store of renewable energy and more than making up for coal-burning power plants that would have to be retired.

Following up on the M.I.T. study and a separate survey of its own, the Bureau of Land Management issued a decision last month that would open up as many as 190 million acres to leases for geothermal exploration and development. These lands are mostly in the West, where hot rock lies closer to the surface than it generally does in the East.

There is a lot of research yet to be done about geothermal sources, new techniques for deep drilling and energy generation at the surface. But the basics are clear enough. Water is injected deep into the earth where it absorbs heat from the surrounding rock. As the fluid returns to the surface, that heat is used to generate electricity. The fluid is then re-injected. The system forms a closed loop. It creates almost no emissions and is entirely renewable. It also occupies a smaller surface area than either solar or wind power.

Still, large-scale commercial production is at least a decade away and will require improvements on currently available technology. Geothermal development also will mean still more competition for scarce water, more holes in the ground and more roads to service those holes.

The M.I.T. report’s statement that the success of geothermal production “would parallel the development of the U.S. coal-bed methane industry” is no doubt meant to be reassuring. Yet in parts of the West, coal-bed methane has been an environmental disaster, both for fragile landscapes and the wildlife that depend on them.

Geothermal development must not be allowed to foster another drilling free-for-all of the kind we’ve seen during the past decade. Done right, it could help free the country of the grievous environmental burden of coal-burning power plants. Done wrong, it could create grievous environmental problems of its own. Mindful of the dangers, the next administration should commit to developing this extraordinary resource.

Cleantech.com reports that Tata is planning a geothermal power plant in India - Tata Power plans geothermal, solar for Gujarat.

India"s largest private power utility is exploring the possibility of building two 5-megawatt renewable energy power plants in Gujarat.

Mumbai-based Tata Power, part of the Tata Group, said it plans to strengthen its renewables portfolio with a power plants using geothermal or solar technology. The projects would come under a partnership with the government of Gujarat, a state in western India.

Tata Power has an installed generation capacity of 2,300 MW, but the company is aggressively adding renewables to its sources. It currently generates renewable energy from geothermal, hydro, solar and wind projects.

In September, Tata Power announced plans to buy a 10 percent stake in Australian enhanced geothermal systems firm Geodynamics for $37 million. As part of the deal, Tata planned to review the potential of geothermal prospects outside of Australia (see Tata Power buys stake in Australia"s Geodynamics).

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2008-12-06T06:10:00Z

The Jakarta Post has a report on efforts to expand geothermal power production in Indonesia - Geothermal projects need investors.

The government is to auction off geothermal resources in Ngebel, Ponorogo, and Ijen, Banyuwangi, to help defuse the power crisis in Java and Bali, an official says. The total capacity of the two sites is more than 400 Megawatts (MW). ...

Head of the provincial energy and mineral resources agency, Tutut Herawati, said the government was preparing a joint team from the central government, provincial and regency administrations to open a tender for the two geothermal projects.

The geothermal resource in the Blawan-Ijen area, recently declared a mining site, is located on the border of Banyuwangi and Bondowoso and has a capacity of 185 MW. The resource in the Ngebel-Wilis area, on the border of Ponorogo and Madiun, has a capacity of 120 MW and is under regulation in a bylaw issued by the provincial government last month. ...

Tutut said the province had a further nine geothermal deposits that would be offered to investors in the future. The nine, located in Madiun, Mojokerto, Probolinggo, Pacitan, Malang and Sumenep, have a combined potential capacity of 580 MW.

Separately, the director general for coal and geothermal minerals at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Bambang Setiawan, said the government would continue mining the renewable and environmentally friendly geothermal energy to help defuse the decade-long national power shortage. "The government will not impose taxes on the imports of any materials for geothermal exploration as incentives for investors to produce the energy," he said.

He said Indonesia had 40 percent of the world"s geothermal potentials, which could produce a total of 27,510 MW, equivalent to 219 billion barrels of crude oil.

Reuters reports that Ormat has expanded a geothermal power plant in Kenya - Ormat Tech completes geothermal plant in Kenya.

Ormat Industries said on Thursday its subsidiary Ormat Technologies had completed phase two of construction of a geothermal plant in Kenya.

The Olkaria III plant will add 35 MW of base load capacity to the existing 13 MW plant which has been in operation since 2001, Ormat Industries said in a statement to the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Ormat said the expanded power plant will save 120,000 tons of imported oil, mitigate carbon dioxide emissions and reduce the average production cost of electricity in Kenya while reducing its dependence on imports.

The Geelong Star report that local company GreenEarth Energy is coming up with some big claims about the potential for local geothermal power production - Geothermal energy bid city sitting on powerful stuff.

Hot water flowing under the Geelong region had potential to supply 150 times Victoria’s energy requirements, a company announced yesterday. Greenearth Energy said the city was set to become “Victoria’s first renewable energy hub” after new tests confirmed the region as a potential target for geothermal power.

Greenearth Energy wants to drill near Moriac and the new Armstrong Creek growth area for “wet hot rocks” to generate renewable, green energy.

Managing director Mark Miller said early tests had found “significant potential” to produce 150 times Victoria’s energy requirements and more than Australia uses in a year.

“We’ve identified the potential for hot sedimentary aquifers that contain water at depth (which is) super-heated and can be drilled into,” Mr Miller said. “The water is extracted through a binary geothermal power plant that produces geothermal energy. The water is then returned to the aquifer so it’s not depleted. “The potential of the system could literally deliver hundreds of megawatts of power. “This is significant. It has potential for not only Geelong’s and the new Armstrong Creek area’s requirements but the entire state’s.”

Lastly, Time Magazine has a look at the renewal of the importance of geothermal power to Iceland"s economy - Energy: Boiling Point.

On a chilly morning outside the hamlet of Reykjahlid in northern Iceland, Hallgrimur Jonasson lifts the edge of a soggy plank of wood lying in the clay to expose a small hole in the ground. "This is the rye-bread bakery," he says, yanking his hand back from a waft of scalding, sulfurous steam. A chef in a nearby hotel, Jonasson estimates his kitchen staff bake roughly three tons of the sweet, dense rye bread in the hole every summer to meet the growing demand, mostly from tourists, for the exotic carb. The bread"s price tag — up nearly 20% from last year — has led to some clucking from villagers that the young entrepreneur is cashing in on a local tradition. Jonasson is more pragmatic. "Who are we kidding?" he asks. "This is our living here."

Steam has long powered Icelandic dreams. Pockets of underground water heated by the earth"s core may not be particularly glamorous, but tiny Iceland has spent decades figuring out useful ways to harness its heat and power, employing it for everything from baking bread to turning turbines. Geothermal power now provides cheap, clean heat to more than 90% of Icelandic homes, and generates 30% of the nation"s electricity, a slice worth roughly $120 million. In recent years, as Icelanders became smitten with the idea that their ambitious banks could create a global financial center in the far north Atlantic, geothermal power got pushed out of the spotlight. But now, with the krona down 44% against the dollar compared to a year ago and most of Iceland"s banks close to bankruptcy, this nation of 313,000 is taking another look at the incredible resource boiling away underfoot.

It helps that global investment in renewable energy was up 60% last year. The number of projects using geothermal power has lagged behind wind, solar and biofuels for many years. However, since 2004, projects in the U.S. have doubled, and countries such as Indonesia have set ambitious goals for geothermal generation. The financial crisis has hit the renewables sector, to be sure, but analysts say that thanks to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama"s green-energy agenda, and recent G-8 goals to cut carbon emissions by 50% by 2050, the industry will come back strong. "I have people calling me asking, "Where should I put my money? Who do I invest in?" " says Mark Taylor, a geothermal analyst with renewable-energy-research firm New Energy Finance. "I"m still pretty optimistic about everything."

So is Iceland. Though they expect credit-crunch delays, the nation"s domestic power firms are sticking with plans to nearly treble the geothermal power Iceland produces in a bid to woo companies like aluminum giant Alcoa and tech heavyweight Google. Internationally, a new crop of Icelandic investment firms have started pumping money into projects, offering partners from Djibouti to the Philippines capital, skills and — perhaps most importantly — a sense that this also-ran of renewable energy is really viable. "I think [geothermal power] is the paramount moral obligation of Iceland in the modern world," President Olafur Grimsson told TIME. "There are over 100 countries that could do the same thing we have with their resources. This is the area in which we can really contribute."

Ten minutes up the road from Jonasson"s bread ovens, over some low hills, a series of dense white steam plumes rise into the cloudy sky. In a flannel shirt and hard hat, Birkir Fanndal maneuvers his truck over one of the dirt roads that crisscross Iceland"s first major geothermal power station, Krafla. Soon after the inaugural borehole was drilled here 34 years ago, the first in a series of volcanic eruptions rocked the area. The eruptions, nine in all, went on for nearly a decade, sending engineers scrambling to keep up with the shifting earth. Fanndal, the plant"s manager, stops his truck in front of a crater where, without warning, one early drill hole imploded into a cauldron of boiling water that took half a year to settle down. "There were a lot of people who said we should leave this place," Fanndal recalls.

They didn"t, and their tenacity is paying off. Krafla recently became the site of a pilot project to drill extremely deep boreholes (classified as three miles or more), a frontier technology that could yield five to 10 times more energy per borehole than any similar project in the world. Landsvirkjun, the state utility that owns Krafla, has also been in talks to supply power to an aluminum smelter that Alcoa plans to build nearby. The financial downturn has put that project on hold for now, but Alcoa, which already has one smelter in Iceland, still sees the country as a site for cheap, power-intensive smelters. By going geothermal, which has less impact on the environment, Alcoa believes it can mitigate the hundreds of thousands of tons of carbon dioxide a smelter emits every year. "If you compare the offset, it"s six to eight times cleaner to produce here" than in a location where a smelter would get electricity from a coal- or oil-based source, says Tomas Mar Sigurdsson, general manager of Alcoa Iceland.

Iceland knows a bit about kicking the fossil-fuel habit. At the turn of the last century, life on the isolated island was bleak. It had been among the poorest nations in Europe for centuries, and a smoky haze choked Reykjavik, thanks to the coal inhabitants burned during the interminable winters. In the 1930s, Icelandic engineers successfully diverted underground water to heat an elementary school, and the rest of the capital slowly followed suit. When the global oil crisis hit in the 1970s, efforts to turn this local resource into electricity — by drilling holes into underground heat pockets and reservoirs to release pressurized steam that then runs turbines — moved into high gear. Today, if it"s not raining or snowing (or both), views from Reykjavik"s harbor are relatively clear. Icelanders hope steam can pull them through tough times again. "The Icelandic power industry will be one of the pillars to carry us out of this crisis," says Asgeir Margeirsson, CEO of Geysir Green Energy. As Thorunn Sveinbjarnardottir, Iceland"s Environment Minister, puts it: "Icelanders think about this resource in almost biblical terms."

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2008-12-01T12:08:00Z

The ABC reports that a geothermal energy plan has been launched in Australia to make it a baseload power source (this is different to schemes to make wider use of low temperature geothermal power) - Geothermal industry plan launched.

The development of geothermal energy in Australia is a step closer with the launch of an industry framework today. Geothermal energy is produced by harnessing the heat of so called "hot rocks" buried kilometres underground.

The framework has brought together industry, researchers and governments to work out how to make geothermal a genuine baseload power alternative. Geoscience Australia estimates it will take five to 10 years before geothermal energy is commercially available.

PACE reports that geothermal power hopeful Hot Rock is trying to get a 50 MW plant up and running in Victoria - Geothermal energy planned for 2012.

Local company Hot Rock Limited is preparing developments for its first geothermal exploration power station next year, in a quest to provide a cleaner, greener energy source for Australia by 2012.

Hot Rock is the largest single holder of geothermal exploration permits in Australia, and its four permits in the area have a total area of 18,294 square kilometres and extend for approximately 270 kilometres along the South Australian coastline and inland.

Locations within Hot Rock’s reach include Portland, Hamilton, Warrnambool, Terang and Colac, some of which have hot springs related to the Otway Basin Geothermal Province.

Geothermal energy is a process of generating clean electricity from naturally-occuring hot water under the ground. The heated water is pumped from below the surface via a network of production wells, and its heat is extracted to produce electricity. Cool water is then pumped back into the hole for use next time.

An independent review by engineering consultants, SKM, showed that the area in which Hot Rock holds permits has the scope to generate up to 1,750MWe or approximately 35 per cent of Victoria’s electricity needs.

Fully developing this area could position Victoria as one of the cleanest states of Australia for electricity generation, says Hot Rock.

The four permit areas held by Hot Rock have already been explored for oil and gas, with over 180 wells drilled. Four of these wells have been shown to offer geothermal resources with water heated to 145 degrees C at depths of 2,400 to 3,600 metres below the ground, which is relatively shallow, according to the company.

Hot Rock is in discussions with electricity generation and retail companies on a joint venture power development in the Koroit Project, which is a 250 square kilometre area within the permitted locations, within the vicinity of two previous drill holes that encountered hot water.

“The [joint venture] comprises an initial proof on concept phase involving the drilling and testing of two wells followed by development of a 50MW power plant,” the company said in a recent quarterly report to the Australian Stock Exchange.

Adelaide Now reports that Geodynamics is looking to expand into the Hunter Valley, with the NSW government giving them some financial encouragement - Cooper Basin hot rocks explorer Geodynamics gets $10m grant. Geodynamics" first pilot plant is South Australia is due to be operational in March next year.

COOPER Basin hot rocks explorer Geodynamics has been given a $10 million grant by the NSW Government to develop a commercial geothermal project in the Hunter Valley, NSW. The NSW government will invest $27 million in seven renewable energy projects, with Geodynamics" the largest player.

Managing director Gerry Grove-White said the funding would be for commissioning of a small geothermal power plant in the Hunter Valley in 2012. "The first stage of this will be the drilling of a 2km exploration well in early 2009 to confirm temperature gradients,"" he said. Geodynamics Hunter Valley tenements at Bulga and Muswellbrook may also hold significant geothermal resources, he said.

Meanwhile the company was close to a major milestones at its key project in the Cooper Basin near Innamincka, South Australia. A 1 MW pilot plant to power the company"s joint venture operations with Origin Energy in the outback town of Innamincka is planned to be commissioned from February 1 and the town powered by geothermal energy by March 31.

Mr Grove-White said the knowledge and expertise Geodynamics has achieved in the Cooper Basin over the past five years will be used in the development of the Hunter Valley project.

Adelaide Now also reports that Petratherm is looking to start drilling at Paralana in May next year - Hot rocks fire up investors.

INVESTORS have bought into South Australian geothermal energy explorers in response to renewed Federal Government support for the sector, says Petratherm managing director Terry Kallis.

Federal Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson reinforced the Government"s commitment to a $50 million geothermal drilling program at a CEDA speech in Adelaide on October 24. Shares in SA-focused geothermal energy stocks have since climbed a combined 34 per cent despite turbulent market trade.

"The Federal Government is reinforcing the fact that they"re still committed to the renewable energy sector . . . I think people are starting to see what the quality stocks are in each sector,"" Mr Kallis said. ...

Drilling at Petratherm"s Paralana project begins in May, 2009 under its $57 million TRUenergy farm-in agreement. Its shares have climbed 37 per cent since October 24, up 13c to 48c. ...

Mr Kallis said Petratherm had costed its Paralana Project at $6 million per megawatt (MW) for a 30MW base-load plant operating around the clock. A typical wind project would cost $2 million per MW of installed capacity, but would only operate for one third of the time, making geothermal as cost competitive as wind, Mr Kallis said.

He said Petratherm planned to generate revenues as early as May, 2010 when its Geo-Madrid District Heating Project is expected to be on stream.

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2008-10-27T00:04:00Z

Independent Weekly
Friday 10/10/2008 Page: 22

No matter what side of the climate change debate you reside on there is no denying the exponential growth in electricity demand worldwide. Incredibly, consumption of electricity is projected to grow by nearly 100 per cent by 2020. Increasing demand for energy and concern over the ill effects of carbon dioxide on the atmosphere has produced an urgent need to explore clean, renewable sources of energy.

Further expansion of nuclear energy is largely unpopular and large-scale hydroelectric projects are now considered environmentally irresponsible. Solar and wind energy technologies have advanced and currently augment electricity supplies, but further advancement is required before these sources of electricity can be suitable as a base load power supply.

Hot Fractured Rock (HFR) geothermal energy is a known source of renewable energy with the capacity to carry large base loads. HFR geothermal energy is environmentally clean and does not produce greenhouse gases. HFR works by utilising heat generated by special high heat producing granites located 3km or more below the Earth"s surface. The heat inside these granites is trapped by overlying rocks which act as an insulating blanket.

The heat is extracted from these granites by circulating water through them in an engineered, artificial reservoir. Standard geothermal power stations convert the extracted heat into electricity. GeoDynamics Ltd has been constructing a 1MW proof of concept plant near Innamincka in South Australia to generate electricity using HFR. This has the potential to make South Australia a leader in the generation and supply of renewable clean energy.

As of June 2008,33 companies had applied for geothermal license areas across Australia. According to the Government of South Australia, 23 companies have applied for 237 geothermal licenses covering more than 110,800 sqkm. These licenses account for more than 80 per cent of all geothermal exploration activity underway or proposed throughout Australia.

The upcoming Engineers Australia Breakfast Briefing presentation, to be held on Wednesday, November 12, will hear from Rod Smith, project manager for GeoDynamics Ltd at Innamincka. David Klingberg, chair of the Premiers" Climate Change Council and the 2008 Professional Engineer of the Year, will also deliver a presentation on the impact of climate change and emissions trading.

Attendance is open to Engineers Australia members and the general public. Register your attendance at the Engineers Australia SA Division Office on 82671783 or sa@engineersaustralia.org.au

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2008-10-24T14:53:34Z

While the battle over opening new lands for offshore drilling continues to rage, the Department of the Interior made a bold statement yesterday by unlocking more than 190 million acres of federal lands to be leased for renewable, geothermal power development. These acres, which are contained in 12 different states (all in the western/southwestern parts of the country), are reportedly capable of producing over 5,000 megawatts of power by 2015 and over 12,000 megawatts by 2025, enough to power millions of homes.

Unlike some of more controversial oil drilling sites (such as ANWR), the geothermal legislation is careful to exclude all national parks or designated wilderness areas from geothermal development. Of course, the geothermal developers themselves will also have to meet local environmental standards and regulations.

The profits from the geothermal electricity eventually produced will be split up – half will go to the state hosting the power plant, a quarter to the local county and the last quarter to a federal fund being dedicated to future development of geothermal power.

190 million acres is a lot, especially when you consider a study done at MIT last year, which talked about “enhanced geothermal” potential. They essentially said that it is possible to generate geothermal electricity in parts of the ground once thought not suitable for the job. Unlike traditional systems, which require land with hot subterranean liquids, enhanced geothermal can work in places where the earth beneath is hot, but not necessarily wet – which are far more prevalent. I don’t know if the 5,000/12,000 megawatt estimate takes into account enhanced geothermal potential, but if not – then these newly opened acres may yield far more geothermal power.

Via Treehugger

Image via orange137"s Flickr

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PainlessPump.com :: Geothermal Energy | Articles

2008-10-12T10:37:00Z

Kenya"s "Daily Nation" is wondering if geothermal power is the cause of the decline of the country"s lakes - Could this be true?.

Eddy Mwasi believes there is a direct link between the drying up of Lake Naivasha, Lake Nakuru and Lake Elmentaita and the thriving Ol Karia geothermal plant. Says he: “What is the source of the steam that drives the geothermal plant other than the waters of the three lakes? The rate at which these lakes are drying up corresponds to the growth of Ol Karia. But the source of the steam water is not limitless. As the lakes dry up, the plant is also threatened?

I would be alarmed if this is the primary cause of the decline in water levels (given my fondness for this energy source), so lets take a look at what is happening in Kenya.

The BBC described the potential for geothermal power in Kenya a few years ago - Kenya looks underground for power.

Experts from the United Nations say if this geothermal energy were harnessed, it could provide power to some of the world"s poorest nations. Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Uganda, and even Zambia have the potential to tap in. But so far, Kenya is the only nation which has made headway. ...

The Ol Karia station is the continent"s biggest geothermal power-generating plant. It takes its name from a nearby volcano, which erupted 150 years ago and is still active. There are 22 wells across the site, piercing the Earth"s crust, and tapping into rock as hot as 345C deep below the surface.

Silas Simiyu, Ol Karia"s development director, says: "Since geo-thermal is an indigenous energy source, we should start with what is ours - not with importing these petroleum products." But even Kenya has been slow to exploit this energy source. The Philippines started geothermal work in the early 1980s - the same time as Kenya - but now generates 20 times more power.

Mr Simiyu attributes the sluggish development to bad policies and bad politics. In the past, hydroelectric dams - the main source of the country"s electricity - have been much more appealing to Kenya"s rulers. Grand projects, built in a politician"s constituency, help generate employment and shore up electoral support.

According to Mr Simiyu, the crunch came during the big drought of 2001. Kenya was plunged into darkness for hours every day as the dams dried up. The power generated by geothermal means saved the country.

In 2002, a second power plant at Ol Karia started work. By 2010, a third should have been completed. This is part of an upsurge of interest in geothermal power across the region. In Uganda, the government is looking into "mini-geothermals", power plants which would generate enough electricity to light up remote villages. ...

The potential for Kenya"s businesses can be seen at Oserian flower farm, close to Lake Naivasha. The company says it has the first geo-thermally heated greenhouses in the world. Engineering director Bruce Knight, reckons that the product - long-stemmed roses, destined for Europe - has already improved as the company can now afford to heat its greenhouses through the night.

The company was lucky because it had two existing wells on its land, drilled by the national power company, Kengen. Kengen abandoned the wells, believing they lacked potential. But after investigation, Oserian decided the wells might provide enough energy to power a flower farm.

They bought a ready-to-assemble geothermal plant from Israel - estimating that the million-dollar costs would repay in four to six years. The flower farm is now almost entirely dependent on geothermal energy, which is cheaper and more reliable than the national grid.

Wildlife Extra reports that Lake Naivasha has been in decline for 3 decades, with argiculture bearing much of the blame - Lake Naivasha is threatened by rampant water usage..

Lake Naivasha, Kenya"s second largest lake, is an ecosystem in crisis. The lake level has dropped by three meters from its maximum, the area has shrunk to half its size, and precious wetlands are degraded beyond recognition. At the Fourth World Water Forum, in Mexico City, Earthwatch scientist Dr. David Harper of the University of Leicester presented evidence of three decades of ecological decline at Lake Naivasha and made urgent recommendations for the lake"s sustainable future.

"Lake Naivasha was once considered one of the world"s top ten sites for birds and a paradise of clear water, with beautiful papyrus and water lily fringes," said Harper, principal investigator of Earthwatch"s Lakes of the Rift Valley project. "A haven for African wildlife and a major source of water for the lakeside"s quickly growing population, the health of Lake Naivasha is critically important." The ever-smaller lake is becoming an over-enriched muddy pool, which shortly will become unusable through the development of toxic blue-green algae blooms. Its inflowing rivers, formerly sparkling and permanent, are now muddy and unpredictable."

Naivasha is being sacrificed because we require too much water. Almost everybody in Europe who has eaten Kenyan beans, Kenyan strawberries and gazed at Kenyan roses has bought Naivasha water. Tourists and hotel guests have drunk it, the Ol Karia geothermal power station is run by it, and local people depend on it for their daily lives.

Harper urged the support of three objectives to save Lake Naivasha from ecological collapse. First, an upper limit on basin extraction must be agreed upon and shared equitably and transparently, counteracting the dishonesty of over-use and ignorance of waste. Second, the lake wetlands and riparian vegetation in the basin must be restored to functionality. Finally, an educational campaign must be launched encouraging the principles of ecohydrology and the real value of water to all basin inhabitants.

WorldLakes.org points out that lake levels have fluctuated dramatically over the years and that the goethermal plant gets its water from groundwater rather than directly from the lakes - Managing Lake Naivasha.

Being a shallow lake with gently sloping shores, Naivasha’s shape and size have always been subject to great seasonal variations. When the explorer Joseph Thomson marched through the area in 1884, the lake was virtually dry, with cattle grazing around a small pond in the centre of the present site. A decade later, the lake was lapping at the cliff-face above the present-day railway line – more than 10 meters higher than today’s level.

With such huge fluctuations, massive evaporation, widespread abstractions by its farmers and flower growers, and – more worrying still – by smallholders and dairy farms on the rivers feeding the lake, many Naivasha residents believe a return to Thomson’s ‘pond’ is inevitable, even natural. ...

The new environmental awareness that appears to be sweeping through Naivasha has gained another high-profile supporter in the Kenya Electricity Generating Company, KenGen, whose Ol Karia power plant is a prominent lakeside landmark. There can be little argument against the geothermal plant, which remains one of Kenya’s most environmentally friendly sources of power and is expected to almost double its contribution to the beleaguered national grid over the next 20 years. However, fears do remain about the impact of drilling on the underground water flows and aquifers feeding the lake, and the LNRA has called for continuing monitoring of the situation.

KenGen maintains that its use of water for drilling the geothermal wells and operating the plant have a negligible effect on lake levels. Martin Mwangi, the Geothermal Development Manager, says the plant relies on steam extracted at great depths – between 1,000 and 2,500 meters - whereas the aquifers delivering water to the lake are less than 200 meters deep.

“The closeness of the Olkaria geothermal system to Lake Naivasha and the obvious use of natural steam in power generation give a very erroneous impression that the steam and the hot water are derived directly from the lake,” Mwangi says. “It is also not obvious to people that the ground itself is a huge reservoir capable of driving the geothermal systems in the Kenya Rift without a surface lake. We think the water we exploit is primarily derived from the Rift flanks where fractures penetrate between three and seven kilometers into the hot rocks, allowing the water to reach these rocks and rise back to the geothermal reservoir.”

While it seems unlikely that the geothermal power plants are the primary cause of shrinking lake levels, AllAfrica.com reports that there are other concerns facing the expansion of Kenya"s geothermal power industry - Plans for Power Plant At Crater Creating Deep Rift.

The proposal to establish a geothermal power station in the Menengai Crater in Nakuru is being challenged by environmental conservationists who want the crater to be preserved as a tourist attraction.

Nakuru industrialists, on the other hand, argue that the generation of geothermal power will go a long way in helping meet the country"s power needs. Business owners say they have lost expensive equipment as a result of power surges while others have had to buy generators to sustain production when power cuts occur. They say that the diesel power generators have made production more costly and uneconomical.

Textile manufacturers in Nakuru town say they are losing out to competitors in Egypt and South Africa where electricity tariffs are low and they can afford to price their products low. Mr M.S. Shah of Londra Textiles said that there was no likelihood of the textile industry recovering, despite government efforts to address the industry"s issues, unless electricity tariffs were lowered.

Other manufacturers say they are unable to meet export delivery schedules when power is rationed during the dry season. Mr J. Bedi of Bedi Investments told the Sunday Nation that the rising cost of electricity and fuel was impacting negatively on production. His firm, which previously paid an electricity bill of Sh2 million per month, now pays Sh3.1 million.

Mr Bedi said the high cost of production was likely to force investors to relocate to other countries where electricity tariffs were low. Already, many manufacturing industries said they have reduced staff numbers to stay afloat.

"The establishment of another geothermal power station will go a long way in alleviating the electricity shortage this country has been having over the years. The Menengai Crater has been lying idle since independence. Let KenGen expedite the power generation," said a Nakuru industrialist. He added that since the Ol Karia Power Station and the Hell"s Gate National Park have a symbiotic relationship, there is no reason for conservationists to think a geothermal power generation plant in the Menengai Crater would be harmful.

KenGen runs Africa"s biggest geothermal power station at Ol Karia in Naivasha where it has many geothermal wells.

A former chairperson of the Nakuru Business Association, Mr Peter Kinya, said that several European countries had well-developed geothermal power generation stations that did not compromise the quality of the environment, arguing that the geothermal station would occupy only a small portion of the 90-square kilometre crater.

Hydro-geologist Mwangi Gichuki said he could not dismiss the many benefits that the country stood to gain by establishing a second geothermal station. "We need cheap power but KenGen must also ensure that the communities living in the neighbourhood of the crater are not exposed to poisonous chemicals such as sulphuric acid which forms when emissions such as hydrogen sulphide mix with water," he said.

He said that the wells which could be a kilometre deep were also likely to affect the hydrology of the area, considering that a number of boreholes are also being sank at Ol Bonita in the neighbourhood of the crater. "It is a catch-22 situation. We need electricity and at the same time we must ensure that the health of the communities in the neighbourhood is not compromised," Mr Gichuki said. The Menengai Crater geothermal station is expected to produce about 140MW.

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