Green Rock And UWA Receive Geothermal Exploration Permit In Perth

Green Rock Energy Limited (Green Rock) and the University of Western Australia (UWA) have received geothermal exploration permit in the Perth Metropolitan area, including the UWA’s Crawley Campus. The UWA geothermal energy project is designed to replace a portion of the UWA’s Crawley Campus’ electricity powered compression chillers with geothermal powered absorption chillers.

The permit enables the development of the geothermal energy project under Western Australia’s recently enacted geothermal legislation.

This commercial demonstration project will replace around 5MW thermal, or one third, of the electricity presently used to power the university’s central air-conditioning plants. Absorption chillers are proven technology widely used for commercial air conditioning in the USA, Japan and Europe.

Green Rock Managing Director, Adrian Larking said, “this UWA based renewable energy project will be the first geothermal energy project undertaken under Western Australia’s new geothermal legislation, the first geothermal powered absorption chiller in Australia and the first major geothermal project in Western Australia. We aim to be the first major geothermal project in production in Australia.”

Green Rock Energy will drill two geothermal wells, to a depth of around 3,000 metres, to provide the 100°C geothermal water to power a 5MW absorption chiller. One well, a production well, will be used to access and obtain the hot geothermal water and the other, an injection well, used to return the cooler geothermal water following the extraction of the geothermal energy (in the form of heat) by the absorption chiller. By replacing conventional compression chiller plants that use electrical energy, large commercial buildings, including universities, hospitals, hotels, airports, data centres and shopping centres, can be air-conditioned using geothermal water as the principal power source. This is particularly so in Perth which sits on a deep sedimentary basin up to 15km deep with multiple heated aquifers.

Following completion of the UWA Geothermal Energy Project the aim is to replace further air-conditioning capacity at the Crawley Campus and replication of the concept throughout the Perth metropolitan area.

This UWA commercial demonstration project alone will eliminate around 10,000 tonnes per annum of carbon dioxide presently being emitted by fossil-fuelled electricity power stations.

Alkimos Geothermal District Heating and Cooling Project

In addition to its Perth geothermal exploration permit, Green Rock has been formally offered Permits in both the Collie and Perth Basins where the Company considers there is geothermal potential for electricity production as well as the direct use of the geothermal energy for air-conditioning and water desalination which will displace electricity as their energy source.

In particular, it is proposed to apply the know how developed in the UWA geothermal energy project to a geothermal powered district heating and cooling system at Alkimos, the next major Perth suburban development 40km north of Perth CBD, being planned for development in 2011.

The replacement of a portion of electricity demand, with geothermal powered district heating and cooling, will be a major driver for the intended move to carbon-neutral living at Alkimos. Up to 50MW of electricity generation capacity may be eliminated. District heating and cooling systems, which distribute hot water and chilled water to multiple buildings for air-conditioning, have been used in commercial buildings for decades. To date they have been mainly used in business districts and institutional settings, such as university campuses like UWA’s Crawley Campus.

District heating and cooling is a major contributor to green house gas reduction in many European and North American countries. As energy costs increase and community concerns about green house gas reductions increase, industry is finding new ways to use the technology. As a result, geothermal energy is becoming an important source of energy for district heating and cooling.

Heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning typically account for more than 30 % of the energy consumed in commercial buildings. Geothermal powered district cooling systems in particular benefit the local power grid by being always a constant and reliable source of energy, available when needed reducing peak power demand and alleviating power congestion due to transmission limitations. District cooling not only helps cool cities; it helps alleviate the challenges posed by high and peak electric consumption.