Developer secures geothermal prospecting permit in Western Australia

Australian geothermal developer Mid West Geothermal Power Pty Ltd. announces having been awarded Geothermal Special Prospecting Authority (GSPA) 2 in the North Perth Basin, near Pert/ Western Australia.

The company identified a geothermal system in the area in a region around Dongarathat (Mid West), describing the potential of more than 150 MW of power generation capacity, “enough to power over 100,000 homes”.

On its website, the company describes, having identified this “large hot sedimentary aquifer geothermal resource … as a result of recent deep drilling undertaken by oil and gas companies searching for gas.  The resource is located more than 3.5 km below the surface where formation temperatures are 150 to 200 degrees Celsius, in a sedimentary aquifer known as the Kingia Sandstone.”

“The project will use well established oil field drilling techniques to target naturally occurring porosity and permeability in the Kingia Sandstone, with no reservoir enhancement or stimulation required.  This is not a ‘Hot Dry Rock’ project; high flow rates of water are achievable without any requirement for fracking or stimulation.  Hot water currently present in the rock formation will be brought to the surface and the heat extracted to produce power. The water will then be returned to the same rock formation where it will naturally reheat.”

Great to see continued efforts on geothermal development in Australia, these clearly have not been easy times.

Source: Mid West Geothermal Power via Mark Ballesteros/ LinkedIn