"I have a few more questions Dex,Where are these massive...

"I have a few more questions Dex,

Where are these massive reserves of geothermal energy sources ?"

They are scattered around Australia (and the world). Here is a heat map of Australia - the trick is to find them at a depth that is feasible to drill to.




"Why is it that at one of the most favourable places on earth (Pacific ring of fire) USA west coast, are the power plants in the link only coming up with max generating capacities of 2-70 MW generating capacity.. that seems along way off 1000+MW generating capacity ?"

As I said - this is a new resource to be exploited. Previously only "wet" geothermal has been developed and is only found in limited geographical areas and quantities (Iceland, New Zealand, the Phillipines have large amounts). There has probably been the usual political bias in play here too.

Here is a link to a recent study from MIT on HDR geothermal. It has sparked a lot of interest in the US, amongst government and investors.

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/geothermal.html

"In respect to technology aren't nuclear power plants already tried and tested and can be built anywhere into existing transmission infrastucture ?"

They have never been proven to be commercially viable in the west. They have always required government subsides and guarantees to survive.

As far as siting goes will find there are major environmental and political issues with where they can be placed. They will have to be a large distance from major population centres for purely politcal reasons if nothing else. They are also large cosumers of water, like coal plants. A coastal location would be best, but again very unpopular politically.

Another issue is that we do not have the skills or experience here to build or run them. This may take ten years or more to develop before we can even begin to plan them.