Details of Australian aquifer geothermal project

"In Australia, there's a lot of money going to solar projects, carbon capture and storage and wind," he said. "And while we don't want to bag on any of our competitors, they are not base load renewables. They are intermittent technologies."

Greenearth Energy seeks government funding to move forward with demonstration stage of 140 MW project.

He said geothermal plants have the ability to produce emissions-free, base load renewable energy.

Most of the world's geothermal power comes from volcanic systems, or hydrothermal systems. But Australia does not have any active volcanoes.

Instead, Australia has aquifers—bodies of rock that exist deep in the earth, which are porous, sedimentary and contain water that's being heated by the earth's core. Greenearth's demonstration plant is expected to use a hot sedimentary aquifer geothermal reservoir.

The water within the aquifers at Geelong is about 180 degrees Celsius and about 170 degrees Celsius when brought to the surface. From there, it could be used to drive a binary geothermal power station, Miller said. "We specifically target areas where these aquifer systems exist at depth," he said. Read full Via - CleanTech


Or look here for more information about geothermal projects in Australia ;-)