By mid-2009, Brisbane-based Geodynamics expects to be providing Australia’s first hot rocks geothermal-generated electricity.

Following the successful completion of the Proof of Concept stage, the company’s joint venture operations with Origin Energy in the outback town of Innamincka, South Australia, will progress to commercial demonstration.

Geodynamics Managing Director and CEO Gerry Grove-White said Innamincka, which has a permanent population of just twelve, is set to be the proving ground for hot fractured rock (HFR) geothermal energy when it swaps diesel fuel power for geothermal power.

“From that one small step, Geodynamics aims to make the great leap into making the Cooper Basin a major new energy province for Australia,” said Mr Grove-White.

Geodynamics is one of over 40 geothermal energy companies, formed in Australia as the search for alternative energy sources intensifies. Geodynamics’ Cooper Basin tenements extend from South Australia to southwest Queensland and contain an energy resource comparable to Australia’s coal and gas resources. The company has Geothermal Energy Licences (GELs) covering 2,500 square kilometres of the Cooper Basin and is the only company in Australia to have successfully drilled 4,000 metres into granite that contains multiple fractures and water under pressures of up to 12,000 pounds per square inch (psi).

The quest for alternative power sources

Australia’s plentiful hot rock deposits make it an ideal place to develop the renewable, zero-emission energy source. Despite the recent collapse of confidence in global financial markets, the demand for energy is likely to keep growing and no single source of power will meet those demands.

Geodynamics said that the development of Australia’s vast geothermal resources could provide more than 25 per cent of the nation’s increase in demand for energy by 2050. The company believes Australia’s geothermal resources offer the most realistic and timely solution for the demand for clean, zero emission, base load power. In the coming year, Geodynamics will be seeking a significant proportion of the $500 Renewable Energy Fund promised by the Federal Government to help finance its own commercial geothermal power demonstration plant. Furthermore, the company reported that the government’s decision to launch a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme by 2011 is a critical platform for cutting emissions and aligns well with the company’s development ambitions and time frames.

Hot rocks – hot drilling

Geodynamics’ Cooper Basin site is regarded as one of the hottest spots on earth outside volcanic centres. To date, the company has drilled three wells – Habanero 1 (named after the world’s hottest chilli), Habanero 2 and Habanero 3. Of these, Habanero 1 and 2 are not of commercial scale. Habanero 3, the first well to be drilled using the ‘Lightning Rig’, is the first commercially viable well to be drilled and its target depth of 4,221 metres was reached on 22 January 2008. The completion of drilling in Habanero 3 is the largest well of this depth ever drilled onshore in Australia and the first commercial scale HFR production well to be drilled. Geodynamics’ tenements – GELs 97, 98 and 99 – have been shown to contain more than 400,000 petajoules (PJ) of high-grade thermal energy. The company’s confidence is based on the fact that:

• The size of the resource is clear – the large • bodies of granite have been clearly delineated and proven to exist through drilling.
• The quality and potential of the resource is • proven – temperatures have been measured up to 250°C.
• The world’s largest enhanced underground • heat exchanger has been developed and initial flow tests have produced the first hot fluids to the surface.

Project studies, including long term production modelling, have shown that these resources have the potential to support a generating capacity of more than 10,000 megawatts (MW).

Geodynamics has completed the Proof of Concept program involving the completion of the closed loop test at its Habanero project. Geothermal consultants GeothermEx conducted a review, concluding that Geodynamics has achieved Proof of Concept, demonstrating the ability to extract heat from hydraulically stimulated HFR to create power. The company will now move forward to Stage 2 of the business plan – commercial demonstration – and expects to produce its first MW of geothermal power by the middle of 2009.

Mr Grove-White said “This great news, in conjunction with the impending commissioning of the 1 MW Pilot Plant, will allow the company to move on to building a commercial demonstration plant.”

The 1 MW pilot power station will enable the company to use geothermal energy to power its field operations near Innamincka, including workers’ accommodation, warehouses and workshops.

The company also plans to finalise its preferred design for a 50 MW power plant during 2009. Once operational (planned for 2012), the power plant will produce zero emissions with zero water requirements and will produce enough electricity to power approximately 50,000 households on a continuous basis.

Future HFR power

Geodynamics is focused on delivering power to the national electricity grid in 2011, with a targeted production of more than 500 MW by 2016. The company said that eventually output will reach 10,000 MW – the equivalent of 10 to 15 coal-fired power stations – giving hot rocks energy a justifiable claim as a great Australian resource to rank with the Snowy Mountains Scheme. Geodynamics has conducted concept studies to define options for transmitting power from the Cooper Basin to major load centres such as Brisbane, Adelaide or Sydney.

Mr Grove-White said the company was planning transmission infrastructure ahead of any state or Federal Government support or regulations.

“We are currently investigating appropriate line routes, line sizes and technologies to get our geothermal power to market in appropriate time frames and manner,” he said. “If we were to wait until the time frames that occur in public life eventuate, the company and the geothermal sector in general would be delayed in its expansion plans.

“This does not mean we are not heavily engaged at a variety of levels to ensure appropriate levels of support from governments and regulators are forthcoming. We have made a submission to Infrastructure Australia to lobby for the construction of a Transmission Super Highway linking Adelaide and Brisbane, using the Cooper Basin as a generation hub.

“The AGEA has a seat on the panel set up by the Australian Energy Market Commission to review the potential changes to energy markets required by the introduction of the Renewable Energy Target and the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme (CPRS). We have also been engaged at various levels of government to explain the unique issues facing not just Geodynamics and the geothermal sector but other remote renewable technologies.”