Central Australia Clean Energy Precinct Proposal by Petratherm
Friday, 9 December 2011 Central Australia Clean Energy Precinct Proposal Petratherm unveiled a proposal earlier this week to deliver up to 600 MW to mining developments in NW Sout...

QGECE Presentations at the Australian geothermal Energy Conference (AGEC) 2011
The QGECE staff and students made nine presentations to AGEC2011

QGECE working on options to connect geothermal electricity to the market
The issues associated with building long transmission lines to connect large amounts of electricity to power networks are examined by the QGECE engineers and PhD students.

$38m for new geothermal R&D in USA
I list some of the project titles that received money from DoE last week as part of the Geothermal Technologies Program funding.

Treasury modelling favours geothermal energy as the future baseload alternative
By 2050, geothermal will be a major source of renewable generation, accounting for between 13 per cent and 23 per cent of total generation in 2050

Coal Seam Gas Debate and Geothermal Energy
Wednesday, 24 August 2011 Coal Seam Gas Debate and Geothermal Energy What is coal seam gas? CSG in Australia Water contamination issues?

Paralana II Fracture Stimulation Success
Last week, Petratherm and its JV partners Beach Energy and TRUenergy advised that the fracture stimulation undertaken on the Paralana 2 well had been successfully completed.

Hal Gurgenci's Geothermal Blog
Technology development and the uptake of geothermal energy in Australia and around the world

Geothermal to grow in Japan
Japan takes account of the Fukushima disaster and assesses future electrical power options for the country. It makes sense that geothermal has to be a significant component of this future.

The University of Queensland launches the 1.22-MW solar panel array
Australia's largest rooftop photovoltaic solar energy generating system was launched to day on the University of Queensland St Lucia campus. The 1.22-MWe array cost of $7.75m.

Cost of Baseload Solar Power
The 19.0-MW Gemasol power plant in Spain started operation last week as a baseload generator using molten salt storage. It offers a good example to compare the EGS costs against as two most likely renewable baseload generating technologies.

Kalina Cycle for Taufkirchen
Following the ASX announcement by Wasabi Energy to join the consortium to develop a new 4.5MWe Kalina plant in Taufkirchen, Germany, I have been meaning to write something about it. A Kalina cycle is of course a mixed fluid cycle where the mixed fluid is ammonia and water. While the Kalina cycle if offered over a wide temperature range, its advantages are more pronounced for lower temperatures.

Geothermal Energy for China
Success in developing applications in direct use of the geothermal heat may lead into more geothermal electricity generation projects in the future provided the ongoing exploration efforts identify suitable targets.

Geothermal Renaissance (continued)
I am very optimistic about the future of geothermal energy. However, it will be very important for the sector to realise that significant improvements are needed before EGS becomes commercially feasible.

Solar Flagship Project Funding will also help Geothermal Power Generation
The Federal Government announced on the weekend that one of the two successful bids in the Solar Flagships is Solar Dawn consortium, which will build a solar thermal power plant in Chincilla. QGECE was part of this bid to provide research on hybrid cooling strategies.

January-May 2011
Monday, 30 May Deep Drilling Project in New Zealand Last week a Taupo workshop discussed how New Zealand can access its deep and very hot geothermal resources. These are resources that are about 5 kilometers below the surface and...

Geothermal Renaissance
Thursday, 16 June 2011 Geothermal Energy Renaissance At the end of the Queensland Geothermal Workshop last month I expressed the view that the geothermal energy sector could be about to start an upswing after a disappoi...

Swiss Geothermal Future
Swiss Plans for Geothermal Power I was in Bethesda over the last week attending the Geothermal Technology Program review, which is a progress review of the projects funded by the Department of Energy.  Today I am starting the journey ...

Design of Radial Turbines for Geothermal Applications
Wednesday, 1 June Design of Radial Turbines for Geothermal Applications In the QGECE Weekly Seminar Series, Carlos Ventura gave a talk on Tuesday on ...

NZ Deep Geothermal Project
Monday, 30 May Deep Drilling Project in New Zealand Last week a Taupo workshop discussed how New Zealand can access its deep and very hot geothermal resources. These are resources that are about 5 kilometers below the s...

Pictures and Presentations from the Queensland Geothermal Stakeholders Workshop
Wednesday, 25 May Queensland Geothermal Energy Workshop (Presentations are posted below) On Monday, we had the Qu...

QGECE Work on Metal Foam Heat Exchangers
Wednesday, 18 May QGECE Work on Metal Foam Heat Exchangers The QGECE seminar of this week was from Ampon Chumpia on "Improving the performan...

This Week's Seminar was on Scroll Expanders
Tuesday, 10 May This Week's Seminar was on Scroll Expanders The QGECE seminar of this week was from Braden Twomey. Braden's Post-Graduate research topic is...

Origin Energy expands to Chile
Monday, 9 May Origin Energy expands to Chile Origin Energy announced today that it acquired a 40% stake in the leading Chilean geothermal exploration company, En...

Report from last two QGECE Seminars
Tuesday, 3 May QGECE Weekly Seminars The QGECE holds weekly seminars every Tuesday. These are public seminars and all interested are welcome. Last week it was the Easter break and we did not have a seminar. The week bef...

Geothermal Energy at the State Library
Friday, 29 April Geothermal Energy at the State Library Next Wednesday (4th May), Doone Wyborn (Geodynamics) and I will be at the State Library. Quoting from the State Library web site: Join Michael Duggan in conve...

HSA or EGS ?
Friday, 15 April HSA or EGS ? The term Hot Sedimentary Aquifer or HSA has been coined together in recent years in Australia. I am not sure who is the first user and so has the naming rights. In spite of the increasingly...

The Bright Future of Deep Geothermal Energy (also known as EGS)
Thursday, 29 March The Bright Future of Deep Geothermal Energy (also known as EGS) My posting two weeks ago was from Napa Valley attending the Hedberg Geothermal Research Conference organised by American Association of Petr...

World's longest undersea cable to bring remote geothermal to Europe
Thursday, 10 March Ambitious plan to build the world's longest undersea cable to bring a remote geothermal resource to Europe While we are quibbling in Australia about the cost of transporting geothermal electricity over a thousa...

Why do we need local manufacturing of renewable power plant equipment?
Friday, 18 February Why do we need local manufacturing of renewable power plant equipment? There is a point that is usually ignored when discussing renewables in Australia. This is the relation between renewable investment ...

Growing Evidence for a Large Asteroid Hitting Cooper basin 300 million years ago
Monday, 7 February Growing Evidence for a Large Asteroid Hitting Cooper basin 300 million years ago? Four months ago I reported a summary of the preliminary findings by the QGECE Reservoir Program leader Dr Tonguc Uysal and his r...

September - December 2010
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QGECE signs agreement with US manufacturer to develop next generation power conversion equipment for cheaper geothermal electricity
Wednesday, 9 December QGECE signs agreement with US manufacturer to develop next generation power conversion equipment for cheaper geothermal electricity Readers of this blog will be aware of my belief that much higher geot...

QGECE at AGEC2010
Tuesday, 16 November AGEC2010 starts tomorrow Australian Geothermal Energy Conference start...

New Options for Dry Cooling Towers will be presented at the Australian Geothermal Conference
Friday, 12 November AGEC 2010 Paper on New Options for Dry Cooling Towers The QGECE colleagues Drs Guan and Hooman will present two papers at the Australian Geothermal Energy Conference in ...

Geothermal Job Generation
Monday, 8 November Geothermal Power Generates Jobs A recent report by the US Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) lists the types and numbers of new jobs that are expected...

QGECE helping the Queensland Coastal Geothermal Energy Initiative
Thursday, 28 October QGECE helping the Queensland Coastal Geothermal Energy Initiative Yesterday, the Queensland Minister for Mines and Energy, Stephen Robertson, told the parliament about the Coastal Drilling Initiative to ident...

Russia to work with Iceland for more Geothermal Power in Kamchatka
Tuesday, 26 October Russia to work with Iceland for more Geothermal Power in Kamchatka According to a recently published report from ABS Energy Research of London, 2009 was a ...

New Drilling Technologies to reduce the cost of EGS electricity
Monday, 18 October New Drilling Technologies to reduce the cost of EGS electricity Compared to shallower conventional hydrothermal resources, an Engineered Geothermal System (EGS) typically involves drilling town to 4 - 5 k...

Optimistic about Salamander-1 Well
Wednesday, 6 October Optimistic about Salamander-1 Well Earlier this year, Panax had reported problems in achieving the estimated permeability in its Salamander-1 tests. A study conducted by Down Under Geosolutions (DUGEO) ...

Three more GDP grants finalised
Wednesday, 29 September Three more GDP grants finalised Torrens Energy (TEY) and Green Rock Energy (GRK) signed $7 million Geothermal Drilling Program (GDP)Funding agreements with the Commonwealth Government last week. ...

Ormat receives DoE grant for North Brawley
Monday, 27 September Ormat receives DoE grant for North Brawley Ormat Technologies announced last week that it received $108.2 million from the US Government Section 1603 Program for its North Brawley geothermal power p...

China building a 2000-km line to provide power to Shanghai
Friday, 24 September China building a 2000-km line to provide power to Shanghai We have been quibbling in Australia about the cost of bringing to market the geothermal electricity produced in Cooper Basin. I understand the concer...

Was Cooper Basin hit by a large asteroid 300 million years ago?
Wednesday, 22 September Was Cooper Basin hit by a large asteroid 300 million years ago? Today I will report on something quite exciting. I will give you a summary of a paper the QGECE Reservoir Geology Program Leader Dr T...

Business strategies in a warming world
Tuesday, 21 September Business strategies in a warming world Following a disappointed Copenhagen meeting last year, the global effort towards climate change have seemed to take a pause. The situation was not helped with ...

Deloitte Energy Excellence Award for the New Zealand Power Plant
Monday, 13 September Deloitte Energy Excellence Award for the New Zealand Power Plant The Nga Awa Purua Geothermal Power Station, a NZ$430-million joint venture between Mighty River Power and the Tauhara North No.2 Trust, w...

Jolokia 1 confirmed as the hottest EGS in the world
Wednesday, 8 September Jolokia 1 confirmed as the hottest EGS in the world Jolokia 1 was drilled to 5000m and plugged almost exactly two years ago. A GDY announcement at that time stated that they were expecting to find Jol...

Indonesian Geothermal Power Plant Contract goes to Tata Power and Origin Energy
Monday, 6 September Indonesian Geothermal Power Plant Contract to Tata Power and Origin Energy I reported on 30 March on competition for a geothermal power project proposed for North Sumatra, Indonesia at Sorik Merapi. Tata Power...

$2b/y to finance clean energy projects in Brasil, Australia and Turkey
Thursday, 2 September $2 billion a year from Asian Development Bank to finance clean energy projects in Australia, Turkey and Brasil Soon there will be a new source of financing for clean energy projects. The Asian Deve...

March - August 2010 Blog
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IPCC Management found lacking by the InterAcademy Council
Wednesday, 1 September IPCC Management found lacking by the InterAcademy Council An important report was released yesterday by the InterAcademy Council (IAC). This is multinational organization of science academies from around th...

US Geothermal Energy 50 years old and still growing
Monday, 30 August US Geothermal Energy 50 years old and still growing Last week the US Geothermal Energy Association recognised the 50th anniversary of utili...

Paving the way for clean geothermal energy production
Friday, 26 August Paving the way for clean geothermal energy production The passing of the Geothermal Bill by the Queensland Parliament last week provides motivation to resume my blog, which I have had difficult to maintain in th...

Research to Unlock Geothermal Secrets of Queensland
Monday, 31 May RESEARCH TO UNLOCK THE GEOTHERMAL SECRETS OF QUEENSLAND The Queensland Government expects 250 MWe to be generated from geothermal energy in Queensland by 2020. The Geothermal Energy Bill was tabled with the Que...

News from Panax Penola Project
Thursday, 27 May News from Panax Penola Project It has been over a week since Panax issued a news release on the results of ...

US Government funds National Geothermal Institute in Reno
Thursday, 20 May US Government funds National Geothermal Institute in Reno This is fast becoming a weekly blog. Too busy. The Department of Energy announced on Monday of $1.2m awarded to the University of Nevada, Reno...

Massai protesting against Olkaria Geothermal Plant Expansion
As the contribution geothermal energy increases in the future, the geothermal energy sector will have to deal with these environmental issues. Using binary plants instead of flash will be necessary but not sufficient.

Oregon Institute of Technology Official Plant Opening
Thursday, 22 April Official Opening of the Geothermal Plant on the OIT Campus

Technology for Larger Wells ?
Tuesday, 20 April Technology for larger EGS wells An article in the New Scientist last week was repo...

January-March 2010 Blog
(see

Renewed Confidence at Geodynamics
Wednesday, 13 April Renewed Confidence at Geodynamics Geodynamics announced yesterday that the company is back on track with an updated work program for the next three years, including ...

2010 Australian Geothermal Energy Conference
The Australian Geothermal Energy Conference will be held from on 16th -19th November 2010 at the Adelaide Convention Centre. A number of short courses will be conducted on 16th November, and the Conference and Trade Show being held from 17 -...

QGECE Mobile Geothermal Plant Focus Group Meeting
In the QGECE Stakeholders Workshop on 17 March 2010 (which some of you attended), we received very good support for the proposal to build a skid-mounted geothermal plant that can be trucked to geothermal sites and can be used to demon...

Notes on the IEA Electricity Costs Study
Wednesday, 30 March Reading the IEA Generation Cost Study The IEA released the 2010 Edition of the Electricity Generation Cost study: "Projected Costs of Generating Electricity". There is interesting informati...

Earth and Fire
Tuesday, 30 March Earth Wind and Fire Interest in Indonesian geothermal sector is hotting up. Yesterday, I mentioned Tata Power and Origin Energy. Today, I saw a press release by Chevron that it too is bidding for a geotherma...

IEA Report concludes that Geothermal Energy is the cheapest zero-emission
Monday, 29 March IEA Report concludes that Geothermal Energy is the cheapest zero-emission option for Australia and USA A very interesting study was released last week by the International Energy Agency: "Projected Costs of ...

TIG6 wiki and AGEC 2010
Friday, 26 March AGEG TIG6 Wiki and the AGEC 2010 AGEG Technical interest Group 6 (TIG6) has now its own wiki. I am hoping this will help the communication within the TIG6. The wiki is visible to the general public. However,...

Stakeholders Workshop Update
Friday, 19 March Stakeholders Workshop Update On 17 March 2010, the Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence (Q...

Geothermal energy interest grows in Queensland
Friday, 12 March Geothermal energy interest grows in Queensland The QGECE is having its first Stakeholders Workshop on 17 March 2010. The Workshop will discuss what is happening in Queensland to encourage a faster take-up of geo...

Latest news from the two leading Australian companies: Geodynamcis and Petratherm
Thursday, 4 March Latest news from the two leading Australian companies: Geodynamics and Petratherm Geodynamics announced last week that it is antering a Joint venture with Origin Energy to explore shallow geothermal resources on...

Victorian Minister says "Yes" to Geothermal Energy Meeting
Public perception is important and if there is concern in Australia associated with the seismic risk from geothermal projects, Australian geothermal industry should recognise this and try to address such concerns through various means.

Nga Awa Purua to give a 132-MW boost to the NZ grid
Tuesday, 23 February Nga Awa Purua to give a 132-MW boost to the NZ grid Mighty River Power announced that its $430 million 132MW...

Ormat to double the Olkaria III Plant Capacity in Kenya
Friday, 19 February Ormat to double the Olkaria III Plant Capacity in Kenya Ormat announced that it will expand the Olkaria III plant fr...

Geothermal Pop Icons
Thursday, 18 February Geothermal in Pop Culture Two pop icons have put support behind geothermal energy projects in the last week in two different ways. You know that Google has had a geothermal program for quite sometime. The ...

QGECE Workshop on 17 March 2010
Wednesday, 17 February QGECE Stakeholders Workshop It has been about a year since the Queensland Geothermal Centre of Excellence started receiving its funding from a Queensland State Government grant. It has been a very busy year...

Zero Emission Electricity To Power The Galilee Basin
Thursday, 11 February Zero Emission Electricity To Power The Galilee Basin It was announced last Monday that a subsidiary of Clive Palmer’s Resourcehouse Ltd will be building six mines in Galilee Basin to export 30 million tonnes...

Geothermal Energy in Turkey
There is a flurry of activity going on in Turkey at the moment in the geothermal energy sector.

I am back
Monday, 1 February I am back I am back in my office. I had a wonderful time in Turkey. This was supposed to be my annual leave although it turned out to be more like a working holiday since very exciting thing...

December 2009 Blog
(see

Geothermal remains an option for the Swiss although not in Basel
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 Base...

Results announced from the Second Round of the Geothermal Drilling Program: $35m to five projects in four states
Monday, 14 December Results announced from the Second Round of the Geothermal Drilling Program: $35m to five projects in four states Martin Ferguson announced yesterday...

The CO2 Geothermal Siphon Concept Hotting Up
Wednesday, 9 December The CO2 Geothermal Siphon Concept Hotting Up I reported on 30 October that the DoE awarded $3,000,000 to Symmyx Technologies Inc of Sunnyvale, California, to model the chemical interactions between geotherma...

A new Nature Geoscience Paper on the eve of the COP15 meeting
Tuesday, 8 December The Copenhagen meeting started. It is difficult to predict its outcome. While browsing through the COP15 web page, I was interested in reading what is the definition of an good outcome...

Power Conversion Tutorial 1: Laws of Thermodynamics
Monday, 7 December Power Conversion Tutorial 1: Laws of Thermodynamics A geothermal power plant converts the geothermal heat to electricity. The geothermal heat is transported to the su...

November 2009 Blog
(see

How much would have the failed CPRS cost per person?
Thursday, 3 December Ridiculuous numbers are being tossed around about the possible cost of the CO2 abatement. Let us take a sanity check. The CPRS Bill ...

Geothermal Desalination for Queensland Country Towns?
Wednesday, 2 December Two Queensland towns, Dalby and Maleny, are running dry says the ABC Online Bulletin. The Western Downs Regional Council warned Dalby only had eight hours of water rese...

The US Senate discussing the climate change bill and a possible place for nuclear electricity?
Monday, 30 November While we have been watching the antics of our pollies on the CPRS bill, a similar theatre is unfolding in the United States. While they probably would not bet even money on it,

Queensland Geothermal Energy Workshop
Queensland Geothermal Energy Workshop (Presentations are posted below) On Monday, we had the Queensland Geothermal Energy W...

Are we destroying our economy by trying to reduce our CO2 emissions?
Friday, 27 November The carbon pollution reduction scheme has been hijacked by the political theatre. It is unfortunate that most commentators are presenting this as pretty ...

Reading Notes on the CPRS Bill
Thursday, 26 November It looks like the Carbon Pollution reduction Scheme Draft Bill will pass the Senate. I spent the afternoon today in reading and trying to understand what is in the Bill. The copy of the Bill as it was brought to the S...

We can capture carbon, but can we store it?
Tuesday, 24 November It is only a fortnight before the UN COP15 meeting in Copenhagen. The COP15 means the 15th Conference of the Parties, where the "Parties" is the short of "Parties to the United Nations Framework Conventi...

Geothermal potential in the Galilee Basin
Monday, 23 November This morning, I made a presentation to the

Back again after the Conferences
Friday, 20 November I have not had a blog entry for ten days. There are three reasons: ...

$150m awarded to Geodynamics and Petratherm means $450m to be invested in Innamincka and Paralana over the next five years
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 s...

Ormat Tehcnologies increasing its revenue 20% compared to last year
Friday, 6 November I have expressed a number of times in this blog how optimistic I am about the prospects of geothermal energy and, as a logical follow-up, the financial prospects for the manufacturers supplying the geothermal electricity...

GE loans $40m towards Wayang Windu expansion
Thursday, 5 November While Australia is pursuing HFR and HSA geothermal resources, both of which require slightly different appro...

Desertec Initiative: an inspiration for Australia?
Wednesday, 4 November 30 October 2009 may turn out to be an important milestone for the transition of the global ener...

Metal Foam Heat Exchangers for Cheaper Cooling Towers
Tuesday, 3 November Tuesday is the weekly QGECE seminar day. Today's speaker is Mostafa Odabaee. Mostafa is doing his...

Solar Flagships Project Update
Monday, 2 November The Solar Flagships program was announced in May 2009. It allocated $1.5b to achieve a target of 1000MWe from four solar power stations. Since then, Boston Consulting Group(BCG) has been conducting a survey of the stak...

A presentation by H Gurgenci - A new age in geothermal electricity
Here is a copy of Professor Hal Gurgenci's  presentation to Engineers Australia Mechanical Branch and IMechE Annual Dinner Event: A new age in geothermal...

QGECE Researcher Dr Tonguc Uysal in Brisbane Marathon
Dr Tonguc Uysal managed to put in a very respectable performance in the 18th Annual Brisbane Marathon on Sunday, 22 August, and he finished 111th in a field of thousands of runners.  He is well-motivated with his performance and he is talking a...

Presentation by Prof Gurgenci to the Brisbane Branch of the Australian Institute of Energy, Brisbane - March 2009
Professor Gurgenci's presentation slides detailing the Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence Research program may be viewed

Hal Gurgenci's presentation to the AGEA AGM - December 2008
The AGEA's 2008 AGM was hosted by the QGECE. Prof Gurgenci's presentation slides are available here.  Both the Minister for Mines & Energy, the ...

National Energy Essay Competition - Aleks Atrens
Aleks Atrens, a PhD candidate at the Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence, was recently awarded the under 22 years of age prize in the National Energy Essay Competition. The essay, aimed at promoting thought in the younger gene...

QGECE Seminars
QGECE Seminars are every Tuesday, 1300-1400, during the semesters.  Venue: 45-205 (Mansergh Shaw Building, Room 205) The following is the schedule for the near future:  

Prof Hal Gurgenci makes presentation on the Future of Geothermal Energy - April 08
Electricity Generation from an Engineered Geothermal System using a Supercritical CO2 Thermosiphon Professor Hal Gurgenci Interim Director, Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Ex...

Centre makes submission to Garnaut Review on Climate Change
QGEC Submission to the Garnaut Review on Climate Change Professor Hal Gurgenci Interim Director, Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Exc...