Hot Rocks Energy Gets a $5 Million Nod from Govt
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 02.22.07
Much to the scepticism of our readers we’ve covered hot rocks at least once or twice before. In a nutshell, it’s a form geothermal energy derived from pumping water kilometres underground where it gets heated enough (by hot rocks!) to then rise back to the surface and drive turbines. Taking time off from phasing out incandescent light bulbs, the Australian government’s Environment Minister, Malcolm Turnbull reckoned that ‘large-scale geothermal power plants had the potential to substantially reduce Australia's carbon dioxide emissions and could provide up to 10 per cent of the country's electricity needs by 2050.’ His counterpart in the Industry Ministry, Ian Macfarlane, was meanwhile giving $5 million AUD to exploration company Petratherm to investigate the concept further at their test site in South Australia’s Flinders Ranges. 200 jobs are due to be created as a result. Another company with a potential hot rocks site in the same state is GreenRock Energy, but it looks as if their eyes are currently focussed on a project in western Hungary. It’s all still a bit experimental at the mo’, but makes for a welcome and cleansing relief from the barrage of so called solutions of ‘clean coal’, CO2 geosequestration, and nuclear. ::Petratherm, via SMH.
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London, UK [The Sunday Telegraph, London] "Swiss prosecutors are investigating a green energy project which caused four earthquakes. The inquiry was launched after experts confirmed Geopower Basel's deep-heat mining project near Basel had caused tremors of 3.3 on the Richter scale...".
I don't think there is any question that geothermal has the potential to revolutionize electricity generation. A recent MIT study showed that in the US there is sufficient geothermal energy to generate enough electricity to meet current demand many times over.
But this really isn't futuristic stuff. You can get your own geothermal heating, cooling, and hot water system installed in you house next month if you want. They're expensive, but they pay for themselves relatively quickly (relative to solar or wind, for example). And you can finance them in such a way that you being saving on your monthly bills right away. Check out www.zerofootprintenergy.com to learn more about it.
Iceland is almost entirely renewable when it comes to its electricity and hot water. Check out wikipedia about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power_in_Iceland
They have hot water to spare for extravagances like heated sidewalks and year round waterparks.