Australian Geothermal Conference & Trade Show, Nov. 10-13, Brisbane

It is my pleasure to post this invitation to the Australian Geothermal Conference and Trade Show, to take place November 10-13, 2009 in Brisbane, Australia.

The Australian geothermal sector continues to expand at breakneck speed, in spite of the lack of ‘conventional’ geothermal resources. Why? What is it about the Australian geothermal business model that makes it seemingly impervious to the Global Financial Crisis? What opportunities are there for geothermal investors, suppliers and explorers?

Find out! The Second Australian Geothermal Conference and Trade Show is being held in tropical Brisbane, Queensland from 10th to 13th November. Yes, it might be a long way to Australia but if you know that the long running and highly successful New Zealand Geothermal Workshop is being held immediately afterwards, from 16th – 18th November at Rotorua, New Zealand, then how good would it be to catch two world class geothermal events, spanning conventional, EGS, HSA and direct use geothermal, in the southern summer, in the one trip?

Review the programs of the two events and register on-line here:

• Australian Geothermal Conference & Trade Show, Brisbane/ Australia, November 10-13, 2009
• New Zealand Geothermal Workshop, Rotorua/ New Zealand, November 16-18, 2009

So what’s the state of play in Australia?

There are 10 pure geothermal companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, and several more will probably go to IPO soon. More than 40 companies hold geothermal exploration or development tenements. By the end of the year, three companies are expected to have completed deep wells into geothermal reservoirs (two EGS, one HSA type) and between three and five other companies are expected to have won government grants to assist them to also deep drill test their geothermal plays in 2010.

The Cooper Basin project of Geodynamics has learnt valuable lessons for the industry from the well incident earlier this year, particularly in respect of the composition of the deep granite derived fluids. The project will resume when all remediation work is completed and the pilot generation plant should then be commissioned. Petratherm is drilling its first EGS well; like the Cooper Basin project, the Paralana project is in the South Australian outback.

Most other projects being actively pursued are on or close to grid infrastructure and many companies are looking at lower risk Hot Sedimentary Aquifer type projects, including Panax which should be drilling its Penola project in South Australia before the end of the year. Two companies – Greenearth and Hot Rock – are well advanced in planning HSA drilling in the state of Victoria. KUTh is the dominant player in Tasmania, with a large tenement and a successful heat flow drilling program completed. Their project appears to include a hybrid EGS/HSA type play as well as having pure EGS plays. Green Rock has announced plans for tapping the Perth Basin in Western Australia for district heating, direct use (including desal and cooling applications). Geodynamics is planning to drill its NSW EGS play next year and Torrens, Geothermal Resources and Southern Gold may do similarly in South Australia. Even unlisted companies are planning to drill, in spite of tightening capital availability, for example Granite Power and Clean Energy Australasia.

To help make sure that these publicly listed companies report their geothermal resources to the market in an appropriate way, the Australians developed the world first “Geothermal Reporting Code” in 2008 and this has proved a great success. Another great capital resources capital market, Canada, has based their Reporting Code on the Australian Code and it is hoped that others will follow suit.

The Australian Government continues to implement policies strongly encouraging for renewable energy and has several large grant programs specifically applicable to geothermal.

So there is a strong and growing industry in Australia. True, it’s in its early stages, but there are tremendous opportunities for investors, suppliers and technical people to get on board and help grow and sustain the industry Down Under. Take a trip to Australia (and New Zealand) in November and find out for yourself! It will be early Summer in Brisbane, which is the gateway for the Great Barrier Reef and the Gold Coast resorts. See you there!

For more information, e-mail Malcolm Ward at mward@geothermaladvisory.com

This invitation was written by Malcolm Ward of Geothermal Advisory. The writer may have interests in some of the above mentioned companies.