Brumby Government welcomes Geothermal grants

Victoria's renewable and clean energy industry has been given another boost with two Victorian geothermal projects awarded $14 million in Commonwealth drilling grants.

Welcoming the announcement, Energy and Resources Minister Peter Batchelor said the Hot Rock project at Koroit in the Otway Basin and Greenearth Energy's Geelong Geothermal Power Project, near Anglesea, were exciting prospects.

"Victoria has huge renewable resource potential and the Brumby Labor Government is working with the Commonwealth to assist industry to invest in developing the technologies needed to unlock this potential," he said.

"Each company will receive $7 million to help fund drilling projects to help tap into the power below the earth’s surface."

Geothermal energy is a clean and green renewable energy source generated from naturally occurring heat from hot rocks and water reservoirs deep beneath the earth's surface.

"These grants follow on from our announcement last week that the Brumby Government will provide up to $25 million toward stage one and two of the Greenearth Energy project, which could eventually power more than 120,000 homes with clean, renewable energy," Mr Batchelor said.

"Preliminary work by Greenearth Energy shows that the geothermal resources could eventually lead to a commercial-scale power plant supporting greater than 140MW of renewable base-load power generation -enough to power more than 120,000 homes with clean, renewable energy.

"Hot Rock has announced plans to drill early next year and install a small pilot power plant between two wells that will enable the company to test the geothermal resource at the site late next year.

"The Commonwealth geothermal drilling grant program aims to accelerate the development of the geothermal industry by helping companies, like Hot Rock and Greenearth Energy, with the high cost of drilling and reservoir development."

Mr Batchelor said geothermal energy was one of the only renewable energy sources that had the potential to replace coal without requiring storage because it could provide a constant flow of base-load power to the state's electricity grid.

"These drilling grants are good news for all Victorians and have the potential to provide not only environmental benefits from cleaner electricity generation, but economic benefits from new renewable energy jobs" he said.

Mr Batchelor said the announcement built on the significant work and investment already being done by the Brumby Government to cut greenhouse gas emissions and change our energy mix.


Tags: Victorian Government news