Last stop on the tour was Ngawha, New Zealand.
the Kiwis have been generating geothermal energy for years but their geothermal is also different from Australia's - volcanic-related, not 'hot rocks'.
Not much to show.
So, what happened to geothermal in Australia? First, the GFC hit and the ability of companies to raise money - both on the ASX and privately - dried up. Drilling wide diameter holes, 5km deep into granite is bloody expensive - maybe $30-$40 mill each back then. And you need to drill at least 6 to 'prove the concept' at your location. Big bikkies. There was some government money, such as grants and RECs, but the wind and solar lobbies fought ferociously - and I mean
ferociously - to shut the geothermals out of those eg by bringing their projects forward to gobble up the government cash. Also, the technology didn't make the breakthroughs we needed, say in drilling and fraccing, to lower their costs. There was one company - Geodynamics - that was the leader with the best hot rocks site in the world in western Queensland. The raised a lot of money well before the GFC and in the end drilled maybe 6 deep holes, but with a lot of technical difficulties. They successfully fracced and even got a 1 MW pilot plant operating. But being so far away from population centers meant that they were also up for long transmission lines, with attendant losses. They kept going for about 5-7 years, but eventually ran out of money with their technical issues not fully solved. A very brave effort.
All up, the geothermal resources companies proved up
massive energy resources, all below ground; no wind turbines sticking up, no acres of solar panels and now dam impoundments. Base load energy. But the cost remains and there is no technology breakthrough on the horizon.
It was great fun while it lasted.
www.greentechmedia.com
