Green Rock to deliver WA’s first hot rocks project Friday, 3...

Green Rock to deliver WA’s first hot rocks project
Friday, 3 July 2009
Marija Zivkovic

GREEN Rock Energy is set to develop Western Australia’s first geothermal energy project after being offered a geothermal exploration permit for the Perth metropolitan area under the state’s new geothermal legislation.

The project, to be developed at the University of Western Australia, is designed to replace a significant portion of the university’s electricity-powered compression chillers with geothermal-powered absorption chillers.

The commercial demonstration project will replace about 5 megawatts thermal, or one-third of the electricity used to power the university’s central air-conditioning plants, and will also eliminate about 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide presently being emitted by fossil-fuelled electricity power stations.

Under the project, green rock will drill two geothermal wells, a production well and an injection well, to a depth of about 3000m to provide 100C geothermal water to power a 5MW absorption chiller.

The production well will be used to access and obtain the hot geothermal water, and the injection well will be used to return the cooler geothermal water following the extraction of the geothermal energy in the form of heat by the absorption chiller.

Green Rock said by replacing conventional compression chiller plants that use electrical energy, large commercial buildings – including universities, hospitals, airports, data centres, and shopping centres – could be air-conditioned using geothermal water as the principal power source.

The company added that Perth sits on a deep sedimentary basin up to 15km deep with multiple heated aquifers.

In other company news, Green Rock has been offered permits in the Collie and Perth basins where the company believes there is geothermal potential for electricity production as well as the direct use of geothermal energy for air conditioning and water desalination.

Managing director Adrian Larking told PetroleumNews.net that if the commercial demonstration project was successful, the company would roll it out and replicate it in other locations across the Perth metropolitan area, including the planned suburb of Alkimos, 40km north of Perth.

Larking also said the company was in discussions with drilling contractors to secure a drilling rig for the project and expected to start drilling in late 2009 or early 2010.