Geothermal power in Australia facts for kids
Geothermal power uses heat from deep inside the Earth to make electricity. For a while, people hoped that Australia could get a lot of its power from this clean, renewable source. Scientists found places with very hot rocks deep underground that looked promising for geothermal energy.
They drilled special wells to check for these hot rocks, and they found them! However, all the big projects to use this energy have now stopped. A smaller geothermal power plant in Queensland had problems when it was being set up and isn't working as of May 2022.
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What is Geothermal Power?
Geothermal power is a type of renewable energy that comes from the Earth's natural heat. Imagine the Earth as a giant oven! Deep underground, rocks are super hot. We can use this heat to create electricity.
How Does Geothermal Energy Work?
To get geothermal power, engineers look for huge areas of "hot dry rocks" deep underground. These rocks have tiny cracks in them. Here's how it works:
- Water is pumped down into these hot rocks.
- The water flows through the cracks and gets superheated by the rocks.
- This superheated water or steam then comes back up to the surface.
- The steam is used to spin large machines called steam turbines.
- These turbines are connected to electric generators, which make electricity!
This process is clean because it doesn't burn fossil fuels and produces very little pollution.
Where is Geothermal Energy Found in Australia?
Australia has some very old, deep granite rock systems, especially in Central Australia. These rocks are naturally very hot deep down. Several companies, like Panax Geothermal and Geodynamics, drilled wells more than four kilometres deep to explore these hot spots.
South Australia was even called "Australia's hot rock haven." Experts thought that geothermal energy could provide a big part of Australia's basic power needs by 2030. Parts of central Tasmania also looked promising, with enough heat to power a quarter of Tasmania's homes!
However, despite all this potential, these large projects have now been stopped.
Past Geothermal Projects in Australia
In 2010, there were 47 different geothermal projects planned across Australia. The biggest and most advanced one was the Geodynamics Cooper Basin plant. As of May 2022, no geothermal power plants are currently making electricity in Australia.
The Cooper Basin Project
Geodynamics built a special test plant in the Cooper Basin in South Australia. This plant was designed to see if hot-rock geothermal energy could create electricity without any pollution.
The test plant, called Habanero, ran for about 160 days in 2013. It was able to bring up water at 215 degrees Celsius! But in the end, the project was stopped. It cost too much to build the plant and to get the electricity to people who needed it.
Chris Murray, the boss of Geodynamics, explained that the technology worked well. However, the cost of making it work and sending the power to cities was just too high compared to how much money they could make. The wells drilled by Geodynamics have now been closed up.
Geodynamics is no longer working on geothermal power. Instead, they are looking into other types of green energy. They even changed their name to ReNu Energy!
The Winton Plant
A smaller geothermal power plant was started in Winton, Queensland, in 2019. It was supposed to be Australia's only working geothermal power station. This plant planned to use warm water (86 degrees Celsius) from existing underground wells. It would use a special system called an Organic Rankine cycle to turn this heat into electricity.
However, the plant had problems when it was being set up. As of May 2022, it is still not working and is involved in a legal disagreement.
