St. Gallen receives $19 million in risk coverage for unsuccessful well
Drilling rig on site in St. Gallen, Switzerland (source: Webcam Project website, Aug. 7, 2013)
Francisco Rojas
11 Jun 2015
Unsuccessful geothermal project in St. Gallen/ Switzerland receives $19 million in risk coverage from Swissgrid.
The unsuccessful geothermal project in St. Gallen/ Switzerland reports that it will receive CHF18 million ($19.3 million) in risk coverage from national grid company SwissGrid.
Due to an insufficient water flow rate and the complex geological conditions, the local utility decided in 2014 not to pursue the project.
Following the drilling campaign, the Federal Energy Office commissioned an independent panel of experts to examine the results. The result was a declaration of failure and thereby being covered by risk coverage.
After detailed examination of actual disbursements for drilling and testing, the risk cover was set at CHF 18million. They money comes from the KEV Fond (cost covering feed-in-tariff). This is a coverage of 50% of the actual costs for drilling and testing. Before the start of drilling, SwissGrid guaranteed 50% of the cost for a sum of up to CHF24 million ($26 million).
Source: Tagblatt (in German)
