AUSTRALIA MARKS GEOTHERMAL MILESTONE

Outback geothermal plant goes live; Innamincka's megawatt pilot plant starts 100 days of testing

Richard Chirgwin, 2 May 2013 (The A Register)

“Geodynamics has pulled the big Acme switch on its Habanero pilot plant, near the remote South Australian town of Innamincka…Perched atop 4 km of drillings, the pilot plant has 1 MWe (megawatts of electrical energy) capacity and is about to enter a 100-day trial and demonstration project to be completed in August 2013.

“The operation represents a crucial milestone for Geodynamics, which has spent ten years working to get geothermal power a seat at the table in Australia's renewable energy debate. Its original Habanero 1 heat exchanger in 2003 first demonstrated the potential of the site, and the power plant construction was completed in 2009, but the project has suffered setbacks and some drilling disappointments.”

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“Geodynamics says the Habanero 4 drilling, one of two connected to the 1 MWe power plant, was one of the most technically challenging in Australia in 2012. It included establishing a hot circulation loop with the company's first drilling, Habanero 1. The rocks driving the geothermal plant have a temperature of about 242°C.

“The company believes the Habanero site has around nearly 60,000 petajoules of recoverable thermal energy which would, it says, deliver around 7,000 petajoules of end user power.”

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