Hot Fractured Rock (HFR) In Australia

One cubic kilometre of hot granite at 250 degrees centigrade has the stored energy equivalent of 40 million barrels of oil.

Australia has large volumes of identified high heat producing granites within 3 to 5km from the surface.  This represents a vast resource of clean energy that can potentially be tapped by Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) or hot fractured rock (HFR) geothermal technology.

The diagram on this page shows areas in Australia where estimated temperatures at 5km depth are above 225 degrees.  This diagram is the result of a study of thousands of existing exploration wells (mostly oil and gas) by two of Geodynamics' directors (Wyborn and Chopra) for the Energy Research and Development Corporation.

Most states in Australia have now adapted their mineral or petroleum legislation to enable the granting of EGS geothermal exploration.

Geodynamics has secured two EGS geothermal tenements in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, two in Queensland and four in the Cooper Basin in South Australia.

The success of Geodynamics' project near Innamincka has resulted in many other companies taking out exploration licenses for hot rocks in a number of states, particularly South Australia.  As of July 2009, 48 companies had applied for geothermal licence areas covering more than 360,000 square kilometres across Australia. 

More than 1.5 billion dollars worth of exploration and proof-of-concept investment is forecast through 2013, not including possible expenditure to install demonstration power plants fuelled with geothermal energy.