Australia's "rock rush" picks up paceSource: BRISBANE, June 21...

Australia's "rock rush" picks up pace
Source: BRISBANE, June 21 AAP
Published: June 21 2007, 2:57PM

Long after Australia's oil and gold rushes have ended, a new race for a valuable resource below the country's red soil has begun.

The "rock rush" is on.

It's a quest to find and harness geothermal or "hot rock" energy - a renewable source that promises to sustain the nation's power needs well into the future. advertisement

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But progress has been far from feverish, relying on slow and expensive research and testing, and is only now starting to pick up pace.

Geothermal energy produces electricity from naturally occurring hot rocks and water reservoirs deep beneath the earth's surface.

The water is piped through a hole drilled into the hot rock, producing steam which drives an electricity-generating turbine and then injected back into the ground, for the cycle to begin again.

It costs around $55 per megawatt hour to produce hot rock energy, about $20 more than the cost of coal-fired power.

But when a carbon trading scheme is introduced, geothermal could be one of the country's more competitive energy options.

Not only is it renewable, but it has zero emissions.

In Victoria, the rock rush began in April.

Permits were granted to six companies, which will spend more than $77 million over the next five years looking for geothermal sources.

The state's small, compact nature is considered an advantage, because potential energy sources would be near the power grid and potential customers.

South Australia - thought to have some of the best hot rock reserves in the world - doesn't have that advantage.

Most exploration focuses on the remote Cooper Basin, and power generated there would have to be carried to the cities.

But conditions in the basin are perfect for geothermal energy, and 12 companies have applied to explore 116 areas.

At least 10 projects are expected to achieve successful heat flows by 2010, with three more expected to be working by 2012.

By that stage, South Australia's government predicts more than $500 million will be invested in Australia's geothermal sector - with smaller sites in Tasmania, Queensland and NSW looking promising.

In all, there are 19 companies exploring 143 exploration licence areas across Australia.

Leading the charge is Brisbane-based company Geodynamics.

It claims to have found the world's hottest rocks 5km below the Cooper Basin, and on June 30 will receive a $32 million, 940-tonne, US-built rig - Australia's biggest.

It will begin working in the basin from July, and by the end of the year will reveal the area's potential.

As Geodynamics advances, so does its share price, and chief executive officer Adrian Williams is excited.

"There's no barriers to developing hot rock energy - we don't need any technological breakthrough. There's no reason we can't be getting on with it now," Mr Williams said.

While enjoying his position at the head of the rock rush, Mr Williams claims the real race is not against his competitors, but against time.

"Low-emission energy is really important, it's critical," he said.

"Energy will have to come from somewhere, and it needs to come from low-emission sources."

This week, the world's leading geothermal technology expert visited Australia to give evidence at a parliamentary inquiry into renewable energy sectors.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of chemical engineering Jefferson W Tester told the inquiry it was critical for governments to support geothermal endeavours.

Progress in the US has stalled without a long-term commitment from government.

"That's the formula for success when you want to make a transition to a new energy destination," Prof Tester said.

"They all have their individual sets of things that have to be proven, and uncertainties and risks with them, so the leadership of government in both our countries is important here."

Prof Tester said the race to use hot rocks was one "humanity needs to win".

"Competition is good," he said.

"All new endeavours will have start-ups, some will be a success and some won't.

"At the higher level, governments need to decide what are the appropriate ways we can exert leadership to incubate a lot of good things that will happen - market forces aren't enough."

Without carbon reduction targets, time could be running out to stop a rise in global temperatures - and experts believe a rise of just two degrees celsius would be devastating.

For Prof Tester, this makes the rock rush more significant than any rush for resources before it.

"In some ways this could be more valuable than gold," he said.

By Gabrielle Dunlevy