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...1000 square kilometres contain almost as much energy as the Kuwaiti oil reserves. |
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"...we can produce emission-free, base-load power to the nation."
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For more information on Hot Dry Rocks and Geodynamics go to http://www.geodynamics.com.au/
Under their three-stage development plan, they hope to harness ‘Hot Dry Rocks’ to generate hundreds of megawatts of power for the national grid at a cost similar to current coal-generated electricity but with zero gas emissions.
Managing Director of Geodynamics, Dr Bertus De Graaf said stage one, the drilling of an initial trial well, was set to commence near Innamincka, on Cooper’s Creek, in August.
“We’re on the verge of something really big here,” he said. Our 1000 square kilometres of tenements contain almost as much energy as the Kuwaiti oil reserves.
“If we can unleash that energy we can produce emission-free, base-load power to the nation.”
Dr De Graaf said the technology has been proven around the world, it only remains to put it into practice here.
The trial well site is on top of the hottest known rock in the world, at economic drilling depths, outside a volcanic area. Once the hole is drilled, they will create a huge heat-exchanger more than four kilometres below the surface. A second well will allow water to be circulated through the hot granite and back to the surface at temperatures in excess of 200 degrees Celsius.
The second stage is harnessing that heat in a 10 to 15 megawatt geothermal power plant while the third stage is the scaling up to a commercial power plant in the order of hundreds of megawatts. An operating, 300 megawatt plant connected to the national grid from Innamincka is estimated to cost $770 million and will produce electricity at around 4 cents per kilowatt hour. As a comparison, tariff 11 household power is sold to consumers for around 17 cents per kilowatt hour.