deal to spark gippsland coal search

The quicker this gets taken out of action the better for everyone in Vic and all around Aus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazelwood_Power_Station,_Victoria

The station was listed as the least carbon efficient power station in the world in a 2005 report by WWF Australia.[2]




http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/11/2842698.htm
Deal to spark Gippsland coal search
Posted 1 hour 39 minutes ago

MAP: Sale 3850
Two energy companies in Victoria are working out the details of a new deal that would see drilling for coal at sites throughout Gippsland.

Cougar Energy and Ignite Energy Resources hope to collaborate on a project of underground coal gasification, which produces a gas that can be used to make electricity.

Cougar Energy managing director, Dr Len Walker, says the process is 40 per cent more efficient than that used in brown coal power stations.

Dr Walker says exploratory drilling should start by the middle of the year.

"The coal that we're looking at is between 200 and 400 metres below the ground surface, so we're not utilising any of the shallow coal which might be suitable for open-cut mining," Dr Walker said.

"We're utilising coal that nobody else would ever want to utilise.

"But if in fact we can do it efficiently and produce electricity, then it will be of substantial value to the state."