Geothermal aquifer in Victoria, Australia offers alternative to natural gas heating

Latrobe Valley, Victoria, Australia (source: flickr/ yewenyi, creative commons)

An enormous geothermal aquifer about 650 meters beneath the Latrobe Valley in Victoria, Australia is now the subject of interest for direct heating. The aquifer has a temperature of 65 C is is currently being tapped as a source of heat by an aquatic centre in the town of Traralgon. We reported on the opening of the Gippsland Regional Aquatic Centre.

The  author of the source article is now working with various stakeholders, including the Latrobe City Council and the Geological Survey of Victoria, to come up with projects to better understand the geothermal resource. Mapping and identify policy and regulatory barriers for geothermal development are among the initiatives. The viability of using the geothermal resource for power generation will also be investigated.

The geothermal aquifer in Latrobe Valley was first reported by government geologist J.J. Jenkin back in 1962. More current knowledge indicates that this aquifer has an area of about 6000 square kilometers from Morwell in the west to Lakes Entrance in the east.

The size of the resource can be equivalent to about A$30 billion (USD 21.3 billion) worth of heating by natural gas. Transitioning from natural gas benefits the consumers in the context of natural gas prices in eastern Australia increasing almost three-fold since 2015.

The project can also help Victoria attain net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Under the current plant, all coal-fired power plants in the Latrobe Valley will be closed in the coming years and decades. This will leave a deficit of jobs for skilled workers which a developed geothermal industry may also address.

Source: Middle East North Africa Financial Network (MENAFN)