Tuesday, 10 November

The Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson AM MP, today awarded $235 million to four commercial-scale renewable energy projects from the Renewable Energy Demonstration Program (REDP). I am very pleased to see that two of these went to the two leading geothermal aspirants: Geodynamics and Petratherm.

Geodynamics received $90m towards the construction of a 25-MW demonstration project in Innamincka. The funding will be staged with the final grant payment to follow the commissioning of the plant, expected to occur in late 2013. This will be the world's first multi-well hot fractured rock power project.

The second grant in the geothermal area went towards Petratherm's 30MW Paralana Geothermal Energy Project, strategically located near the Beverley uranium mine. The $63m-grant was especially timely for Petratherm and its joint venture partners, Beach Petroleum and TRUenergy Geothermal, who advised yesterday that the Paralana 2 deep injector well reached its target depth of 4012 metres.

The success in their bids will be a major boost to the two companies and the Australian geothermal sector in general. We are all waiting for unequivocal success stories that prove sustained production from a geothermal reservoir in Australian conditions. These grants pave the way towards achieving this aim. I understand that the funding provided under the program is on a 2:1 basis, where the recipient invests $2 for every $1 provided under the grant. This means that about half a billion dollars will be spent by these two companies over the next 4-5 years. Good news for Australia, good news for the sector. Congratulations Petrathem and Geodynamics.

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