World eyes our hot rocks

All eyes are on Australia's geothermal industry with our researchers at the forefront....

  All eyes are on Australia's geothermal industry with our researchers at the forefront of the exciting renewable energy technology, Australian Resources Minister, Ian Macfarlane, told the Hot Rock Energy Conference in Adelaide yesterday.Mr Macfarlane said Australian researchers and companies continue to make major advances in the technology, which has significant potential to produce renewable baseload energy."Our vast untapped geothermal energy resources could ultimately pay big clean energy dividends for Australia," Mr Macfarlane said."The overarching challenge is to produce affordable and consistent electricity from the resource - and lots of it."The Australian Government shares the industry's optimism and has provided more than $28m to explore the opportunities presented by this exciting resource,” he said,In addition to Commonwealth grant funding, the Australian Government has established a Geothermal Industry Development Framework to guide the development of a viable geothermal industry in Australia."This framework will identify the industry's research and development needs and deal with issues such as skills development, legislation, regulation and improving our knowledge of geothermal resources,” Mr Macfarlane said.Mr Macfarlane said the industry was growing quickly, with 16 companies having applied for geothermal exploration licenses to March and the number growing to 27 since then."We can turn Australia into the world's laboratory for geothermal technology and all eyes are on us to see what we can achieve," Mr Macfarlane said.