geothermal future looks hot

GER is mentioned in the below article.
http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/article/2011/07/14/268091_news.html


Geothermal future looks hot

Martin Watters | July 14th, 2011

GEELONG'S future as one of the country's geothermal hotspots will be on the table when Climate Change Minister Greg Combet comes to town tomorrow to talk carbon.

The fledgling power industry, which could transform the state's energy production if successful, will be one of the hot topics for the Minister days after the Commonwealth Government revealed its carbon package.

Mr Combet will meet renewable energy companies likely to benefit from the new tax in the morning and meeting the unions and employees of heavy emitters Ford, Shell and Alcoa in the afternoon.

This week stocks in geothermal companies received a much-needed boost on the news the carbon package would include $3.2 billion for renewable energies.

As a result shares in Greenearth Energy the firm behind exploration near Geelong rose almost 12 per cent on Monday.

The industry's poor-performing stocks had been under scrutiny from market commentators recently, but the industry representative body says analysts need to see the long-term picture.


Experts are confident enough heat energy for base-load power exists in Victoria's southwest, but the difficulty lay in picking wells to tap in, Australian Geothermal Energy Association CEO Susan Jeanes said.

"There is no doubt there is a very good resource throughout the Otway Basin," Ms Jeanes said. "The Otway Basin is expected to support generation projects in Hot Sedimentary Aquifers that are predicted by the Government, not us, to be the cheapest in the national market by 2030."

Ms Jeanes said the industry suffered from its risky image.

"We need private investors. We don't have the funds and the big existing power companies are not being encouraged to invest in the emerging technologies yet," she said.

"The wind industry enjoys a lovely subsidy in the form of the Renewable Energy Target, a resource that our industry would love to avail itself of."

Ventures were hampered by the $5 million price tag of just getting a drilling rig to the site of proposed wells.

But Ms Jeanes highlighted studies showing wells could also be drilled alongside coal power stations as an additional heat source to improve efficiency.

"There's too many researchers and institutions who know what they are doing getting excited about this technology."

A spokesman for Mr Combet said: "The Minister will be pleased with meeting with proponents of clean and renewable energy projects in the region."