| Abstract |
Australia’s emergent geothermal energy industry is growing rapidly, with 29 geothermal companies currently prospecting for Hot Rock and hydrothermal resources. The Hot Rock model in the Australian context comprises a thick sequence (>3km) of low-thermal conductivity sediments overlying deeper high-heat-producing granites. Until now, the key datasets available to industry to guide their geothermal exploration have been a map of crustal temperature at 5km depth, and heat-flow data. Both datasets suffer from regions of low data density and heterogeneous data distribution. The Australian Government has provided Geoscience Australia with funding for an Onshore Energy Security Program (OESP). Established as part of the OESP, a new Geothermal Project will generate precompetitive geoscientific information for geothermal explorers through two major activities: mapping heat across Australia, and developing a geothermal information system. The Australian Government has also awarded several renewable energy and start-up grants to the geothermal industry since 2000, and is currently funding the preparation of a Geothermal Industry Development Framework (GIDF). The GIDF aims to support the industry by developing strategies to ensure that technical, economic and regulatory obstacles are tackled in a coordinated way. |