Geothermal Power In WA ?  

The ABC reports that the WA state government is getting enthusiastic about hot rock geothermal power.

Exploration for geothermal energy may begin in Western Australia by the end of the year. The Government has received 64 expressions of interest since it earmarked land for exploration, including land in Pinjarra, Dunsborough and Kwinana.

Geothermal energy is sourced by drilling into the Earth's crust, and the steam that is produced can provide base load power.

Premier Alan Carpenter says the state is well-placed to exploit the hot rock technology. "Our geothermal energy sources in Western Australia are close to population centres, whereas in other parts of Australia they tend to be very remote and they make scale a problem," he said. "We can have potentially smaller scale geothermal energy production here and it will be economic."

Mr Carpenter's research fellow Professor Klaus Regenauer-Lieb says the potential of the clean energy is huge. "Because we have the heat right where the people are living," he said. "We can use the heat directly to heat, to chill, to do the air conditioning for the city of Perth. And another technology that we think is very interesting is actually heat driven, heat driven geothermal desalination."