geothermal energy, page-15

N E W S
• R E L E A S E •
Tuesday 20 February 2007
$5 MILLION GRANT OFFER TO PETRATHERM’S
HOT ROCK ENERGY PROJECT IN S.A.
The Federal Government has offered a grant of $5 million to help accelerate the development of South Australia’s Paralana hot rock or geothermal energy project.
The grant offer, awarded to ASX-listed hot rock developer, Petratherm Limited, will cover most of the Company’s financial obligations over the next crucial stage of the project.
The funds will be used in the further development of Petratherm’s unique Heat Exchange Within Insulator (or HEWI model) which is regarded as the most innovative approach to date to extracting hot rock energy.
“The grant offer reflects the fact our HEWI model has been recognised by the Federal Government as a new technique that represents a creative departure from existing approaches,” Petratherm’s Managing Director, Mr Terry Kallis, said today.
“The Government has also noted that, if proven, the HEWI approach could become best practice and greatly accelerate the uptake of sustainable, large-scale, geothermal electricity generation,” Mr Kallis said.
The grant offer made today is the maximum available under the Federal Government’s Renewable Energy Development Initiative (REDI) and is also the largest allocation announced jointly by Federal Industry Minister, Mr Ian Macfarlane and Environment and Water Resources Minister, Mr Malcolm Turnbull.
For Petratherm, it is the second financial milestone for the project in as many months.
The Company last month announced a joint venture worth in stages up to $30 million with Beach Petroleum Limited in a commitment designed to take Paralana right through to the production by the end of 2009 of Australia’s first large-scale commercial geothermal electricity supplies.
“The grant offer means the financial foundation for Paralana is highly robust,” Mr Kallis said.
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Large joint investor and gov grant??? Hope it does not affect the main game.
RAB