Authors / CoAuthors
Budd, A.R. | Holgate, F.L. | Ayling, B.F. | Gerner, E.
Abstract
The Federal Government has recently committed $58.9M in the Energy Initiative, a four year program scheduled to mid 2011, with the aim of identifying potential new energy sources in Australia. The program is targeted towards a specific range of energy commodities that include onshore geothermal energy. Using the latest geophysical imaging and mapping techniques, Geoscience Australia (GA) aims to provide pre-competitive geoscientific information that will help attract companies to explore in new areas by enhancing the chances of discovery and reducing the risks to investors. GA's Onshore Energy Security Program includes the acquisition of new seismic, radiometric, magneto-telluric, gravity, magnetic, geochemical and drillhole data in support of exploration for energy sources including geothermal, petroleum, uranium and thorium. Available maps of crustal temperature (Figure 1) clearly illustrate that the geothermal energy resource in Australia is vast. Electricity is expected to be generated from both hydrothermal (hot groundwater in situ e.g. the Great Artesian Basin) and hot fractured rock plays (e.g. buried hot granites within the Cooper Basin). Significant potential also exists for lower-temperature hydrothermal resources close to population or industry centres which may be useable by direct means. Currently the only geothermal energy being used in Australia is that which emanates from a 120kW plant located at Birdsville (Qld) which draws from the relative shallow hot waters of the Great Artesian Basin. The Geothermal Energy Project in the Onshore Energy and Minerals Division at GA aims to support ongoing geothermal energy exploration across Australia via the provision of enhanced maps of heat distribution together with a comprehensive national geothermal information system. Heat distribution throughout Australia will be mapped in three ways: (1) new heat flow measurements in existing and new drillholes; (2) a granite source/sediment heat trap map to identify hot fractured rock systems and potential geothermal plays (Figure 2); and (3) enhancements to the 5km temperature map of Chopra and Holgate (2005; Figure 1). The geothermal information system will comprise a wide range of information including (but not limited to) thermal conductivity, thermal gradient, density, and heat production data.
Product Type
nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
65326
Contact for the resource
Custodian
Point of contact
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
Keywords
-
- External PublicationArticle
- ( Theme )
-
- Hot Rocks
- ( Theme )
-
- geothermal
-
- AU
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
-
- Earth Sciences
-
- Published_Internal
Publication Date
2007-01-01T00:00:00
Creation Date
Security Constraints
Legal Constraints
Status
Purpose
Maintenance Information
unknown
Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
Series Information
Lineage
Unknown
Parent Information
Extents
[-44.0, -10.0, 112.0, 154.0]
Reference System
Spatial Resolution
Service Information
Associations
Downloads and Links
Source Information
Source data not available.