Geothermal energy
What is geothermal energy?
Geothermal energy is the energy stored as heat in the earth. In Australia, this energy is abundant.
There is a steady flow of heat from the centre of the Earth (where temperatures are above 5000°C) through the surface of the Earth (-30 to +40°C) into space (-273°C)—heat flows from hot to cold. The heat is generated by the natural decay over millions of years of radiogenic elements including uranium, thorium and potassium.
Energy is brought to the surface by extracting hot water that is circulating amongst the sub surface rocks, or by pumping cold water into the hot rocks and returning the heated water to the surface, to drive steam turbines to produce electricity.
Geothermal energy holds the promise of being a renewable energy source that can operate 24 hours a day, providing critical large scale baseload power for Australian homes and industries. In addition, geothermal energy can be used for heating and cooling purposes. There are a number of buildings, residential homes and swimming pools that currently use geothermal for these purposes.
It has only become evident in the last decade that Australia has considerable geothermal energy potential. This is partly because of a perception that geothermal resources are found only in regions of active volcanism, which excludes Australia. Although there are no active volcanoes on the continent, Australia does have substantial potential for hot rock and hot sedimentary aquifer resources.
How is geothermal energy used in Australia?
In Australia, two types of projects are under development. They are:
- enhanced geothermal systems (EGS or hot rocks)
- hot sedimentary aquifers (HSA).
Most current geothermal projects in Australia are still at proof-of-concept or early demonstration stage.
Direct use technologies are at a more advanced stage of innovation and the challenges lie in improving project economics and reducing upfront costs.
More information
For more information about the use of geothermal energy in Australia, read the Australian Energy Resource Assessment (see Related documents).