New transmission study for Australia means setback for geothermal
Power lines, Australia (source: flickr/ Jes, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
12 Dec 2013
The 2013 National Transmission Network Development Plan for Australia has just been released looking in the future transmission demand for the country. Geothermal is not seen as a transmission concern within the planning period, a setback for geothermal in Australia.
In a report released this week in Australia, geothermal sees another huge setback. The 2013 National Transmission Network Development Plan is looking in the future transmission demand for Australia.
The report describes a future oversupply of generation capacity in the National Electricity market and signals potential generation reductions.
It also describes that only renewable energy generation will be added to the grid in Australia until 2020, of which most of it is to come from wind (84%), large-scale solar PV (13%) and biomass for the rest.
Geothermal is not mentioned at all, which represents a huge setback due to the fact that it initially was expected to come online towards the end of a 25-year outlook period. But now it has been pushed beyond that time frame.
This showcases the difficult position that geothermal finds itself in Australia. With development not up to earlier expected progress and the difficult position particularly the smaller listed players have found themselves, things are not looking very promising.
Source: Renew Economy
