Here's the transcript of a recent ABC Stateline report on geothermal in WA. You have to read the map carefully - the red areas don't have to be to be very large to represent a good thermal resource.
Could hot rocks power Western Australia for the next thousand years?
Broadcast: 11/05/2007
Reporter: Leonie Harris Print Email
REBECCA CARMODY: As concern over global warming becomes more acute, geothermal or hot rock energy is emerging as one of the more promising power sources for the future.
For years, Australia's eastern corridor was considered the best site for exploration, but new research by the CSIRO suggests Western Australia is ideally placed to harness the power for base load electricity. As mapping of the State continues, business is lining up to exploit the resource.
Leonie Harris reports on the potential of hot rock energy.
LEONIE HARRIS: For thousands of years, civilisations have harnessed the heat of the Earth for cooking and heating, but the full potential of geothermal energy is only now being realised.
RAY WILLS: There is no reason why geothermals couldn't ultimately provide all the energy the State requires.
LEONIE HARRIS: Australia is thought to have some of the world's best geothermal sources, and the eastern states have led the way with exploration. But in WA, little was known about the possibility of this energy source until now.
KLAUS REGENAUER-LIEB: Western Australia is special in terms of its potential because it's a special geological unit that we are looking at here.
LEONIE HARRIS: Professor Klaus Regenauer-Lieb is a Premier's research fellow at the CSIRO and UWA. He is conducting the State's first comprehensive mapping and analysis of geothermal energy, and what he has found has excited scientists and industry.
KLAUS REGENAUER-LIEB: This is an area where cold water goes down.
LEONIE HARRIS: His research shows that due to a rare combination of geological features, WA is well placed to exploit hot rocks.
The biggest asset is the Perth basin, which sits beneath about half of the State's coastline. It is a massive area of rock and water that formed 130 million years ago, and could be used as an energy source for thousands of years.
KLAUS REGENAUER-LIEB: 200 million years ago, all of these continents were together. And the story for the Perth basin starts right here. India separates from Australia and stretching the ocean basin here. At this stage the Perth basin is completely formed. It's one of the deepest sediment basins worldwide, has formed and creates a unique opportunity for geothermal exploration.
LEONIE HARRIS: Hot rock energy works by harnessing heat from the Earth's core. Wells up to five kilometres deep are drilled into the Earth's surface until temperatures up to 200 degrees are reached. The steam is then used to drive turbines in power stations. When the water cools, it is inserted back into the ground so no water is wasted and there are no emissions.
RAY WILLS: The key advantage that geothermal has over a lot of the renewable energy sources is it is absolutely base load. You can generate it ad nauseum for as long as you want it.
LEONIE HARRIS: WA has another geological character which makes it ideally placed to harness geothermal energy - the Darling fault line.
KLAUS REGENAUER-LIEB: The Darling fault like line itself is a spectacular feature. It's around about 1,300 kilometres long.
LEONIE HARRIS: The fault line runs from the south of the State all the way to Shark Bay. It means hot rock energy could be exploited in almost every population centre on the coast.
KLAUS REGENAUER-LIEB: We have geothermal energy right where the people are living and we have a marvellous opportunity here to look into the exploration of this energy source.
LEONIE HARRIS: Mapping has shown hot rocks at Margaret River, Bunbury, near Perth, near Geraldton, in Shark Bay, the Pilbara and in the Kimberley, and that's got industry excited because for hot rock energy to be commercially viable, it needs to be near major towns or mining projects.
Adrian Larking heads a company looking to exploit WA's geothermal potential.
ADRIAN LARKING: You have to transport any electricity or any energy that you are using to the marketplace, and the cost can be very high. If you have a high voltage electricity line, it can be half a million dollars per kilometre or more.
LEONIE HARRIS: But pinpointing exactly where to drill doesn't come cheap in. In the eastern states onshore oil and gas exploration stumbled across geothermal sources, giving the fledgling industry a leg-up. WA hasn't been so lucky, and with each drill hole costing up to $10 million, finding the perfect site could cost many times that.
ADRIAN LARKING: The hot areas identified are based on very sparse data, so the data is very patchy and a lot of work needs to be done.
LEONIE HARRIS: But despite the cost, more than 15 companies are lining up to exploit the resource. What's stopping them is a lack of the exploration rights in WA that exists with other commodities.
The State Government is working on legislation to address this, but the bill won't be introduced into Parliament until later this year. The experience in Germany has shown when geothermal licences were offered, they were quickly snapped up.
KLAUS REGENAUER-LIEB: The instant this legislation came into place, all of the country was sold out into geothermal licences.
LEONIE HARRIS: The potential rush for geothermal licences could further extend Western Australia's resources boon.
Ray Wills from the WA Sustainable Energy Association says there is also an export potential, an idea being pioneered in Iceland.
RAY WILLS: If we take the example of Iceland, who are trying to become the world's first hydrogen economy, basically what they are doing is changing their geothermals into a fuel source that can be transported in the form of hydrogen.
LEONIE HARRIS: Geothermal energy can also be used as more than just a power source. The heat that is captured can heat or cool buildings. It is already used to heat pools at Challenge Stadium. Another possibility is using hot rocks to desalinate water.
KLAUS REGENAUER-LIEB: We use the heat to evaporate sea water, and you can do that over several cycles, so that from one kilogram of steam that you put in, in one end, you can produce 10 kilograms of fresh water.
LEONIE HARRIS: It is still early days for hot rocks in Western Australia, but once the State legislation is passed, geothermal power could be online within five years.
After that, supporters of the technology say its popularity can only grow.
ADRIAN LARKING: The reward for WA could be gigantic.
(20min delay)