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 the last couple of months.

In a press release earlier this week, Mr Robertson reiterated the commitment of the Bligh Government to renewable energy and said that geothermal power was a key element of the State's clean energy future.

The Minister notes that Queensland already operates Australia's only geothermal power station at Birdsville and the Government is investing up to $4.3 million to upgrade the existing 80 kilowatt power station there. Our Centre is given due notice in the press release. As the readers know, the Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence was established by a $15-million grant from the Queensland Government. The Press Release provides a short summary of our research objectives and states the expectation that "this investment will help position Queensland as a global hub for research and development of geothermal technology."

It is pleasing to see that both the discussions noted in the Hansard and the statements in the Minister's Press Release show strong commitment from the Government towards geothermal energy in Queensland. We agree that Queensland is well placed to capitalise on geothermal energy and i contonue to quote from the Press Release:."The geothermal energy industry has the potential to create many jobs in rural and regional Queensland as well as providing a viable energy source for some isolated rural communities and mines. It's an ideal energy source to help us tackle climate change. It has the potential to make a significant impact on the Federal Government's national renewable energy target of 20 per cent of Australia's electricity supply to come from renewable energy sources by 2020. The Government has also(in addition to the above investment in Birdsville Power Station expansion and the Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence) committed $5 million to the Coastal Geothermal Energy Initiative."

Birdsville plant is the first and only (presently) geothermal plant in Australia. In my June 2009 blog entry, I had noted an announcement by the Mines and Energy Minister Stephen Robertson earmarking $4.3m to upgrade the Birdsville geothermal plant. The government investment is to subsidise a major upgrade by the plant owner, Ergon Energy, to increase the capacity to several hundred kilowatts from its present 80-kW installed capacity.

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