Thursday, 17 December
Geothermal remains an option for the Swiss although not in Basel
In my 25
June 2009 blog entry, I quoted Markus Haring, the Basel Project Manager,
reporting on the sequence and the intensity of the surface tremors apparently
associated with the EGS reservoir stimulation. The project was on hold since
2006 with an government-appointed committee considering what happened and analysing
future risks. This committee recently completed its work and released
its report last week. Here is a summary of its findings. The Report was
in German and I got the following by using the Google translation function.
My high-school German was not sufficient to check the veracity of the translation
but it was surprisingly readable and I think Google did a good job.
The following are the risks, according to the Committee, that would apply if
the Project were let to continue as planned:
- The risk of personal injury as a result of the EGS project would be
low
- However, because of the high population density in Basel, the risk
to property would be significant
- During its planned life of 30 years, the Committee believed that the
project could lead to 14 to 170 significant earthquakes and a property
damage of CHF$6m (A$6.4m) per year
- The Committee concluded that this risk to property was unacceptable
and recommended a termination of the project. The detailed results of
the Risk Analysis will be released in January 2010.
- The Committee emphasizes that its findings cannot be transferred to
other locations that may be subject to other circumstances. The Committee
recognises that Projects initiated at other locations in Switzerland
and elsewhere are subject to different requirements and are designed
differently from the Basel project
- Against the background of the climate change and the limited fossil
fuel resources, geothermal energy remains an option like all other forms
of renewable energy.
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A diagram on the Basel project from the project web site |
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This could be my last entry until February 2010. I am flying to Istanbul
this weekend for holidays. While I am there, I am hoping that I will have
a chance to meet with people from the flourishing Turkish geothermal sector.
On 8 July, I quoted from an Austrade
release: "Turkey has one-eighth of the world's geothermal
potential and is ranked seventh in the world. The cost of electricity
generated from geothermal reserves ranges from €0.03 to €0.10c/kWh,
the bottom end of which is competitive with conventional systems".
If I see and hear interesting things I may record them here. Otherwise,
my next entry will be in February 2010.
Merry Christmas to all geothermal energy enthusiasts and let us hope
that 2010 will be a good year for the Australian and global geothermal
industry.
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