Archive for March, 2011
Tax Break Season: Australia boosts support for geothermal exploration with tax deduction
In Australia, the government has announced a boost for the country’s geothermal industry in the form of an immediate tax deduction for exploration of geothermal energy sources from 1 July 2012. Announced by Martin Ferguson AM, MP – Federal Minister for Resources and Energy, the change is part of what it calls an historic resource [...]
KenGen adding two drill rigs
In Kenya, KenGen Managing Director Eddy Njoroge said the company has acquired two drilling rigs at a cost of $128 million. He stated that the drills will arrive in in September, boosting efforts to get more geothermal power. Njoroge was speaking during the ground-breaking ceremony of the new Eburru power plant. He said the region [...]
Rwanda to pick the drilling tab to attract geothermal investors
In Rwanda, state minister for energy, Collette Ruhamya, says the country will need $935 million to build 310 MW of geothermal electricity infrastructure over the next seven years. She said that government will install over $30 million worth of geothermal drilling equipment by August in an effort to attract private investment into the project. Ruhamya [...]
Geothermal baby steps in South Africa include new association
In South Africa, as rising energy prices spur the country to look for renewable resources, work has begun on the establishment of a South African Geothermal Association. The first geothermal system in South Africa was installed at the MyPond hotel, in Port Alfred, in April 2009. Meanwhile, Johannesburg-based Greenstone Geothermal said it is optimistic that [...]
San Jacinto-Tizate wells test to 14 MW
In Nevada, Ram Power, Corp. released results of tests on the re-drilled SJ12-1 and SJ12-2 at San Jacinto-Tizate project. SJ 12-1 ST1, a sidetrack recovery of the SJ12-1 well, produced injectivity index measurements of commercial wells in the San Jacinto-Tizate area with capacities between 5 and 10 MW. The well was completed in March to [...]
Geothermal paying off for EDC, Might River
While it seems that firms struggle to make a go of geothermal in North America, in the Philippines, Energy Development Corp. (EDC) reported a net profit of $101.6 million last year, a full 31% ahead of the previous year’s $78.5 million. EDC is that country’s leading producer of geothermal energy. And in New Zealand, state-owned [...]
Geothermal lease sale in Nevada nets more than $500,000
In Nevada, 17 of 51 parcels offered at auction for geothermal development by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in March were sold. Two parcels in Churchill County received the highest bid per acre prices: bonus bid of $253,580 at $60 per acre for a 4,227-acre parcel by Ormat Nevada Inc., of Reno, and bonus [...]
Opinion: Earthquakes hinder green energy plans
Writing for IEEE Spectrum, Peter Fairley says “The extraordinary earthquake in Japan last month and the terrifying tsunami that followed left the country’s electricity infrastructure crippled. But for some green technologies, the worry is not that they will be damaged by earthquakes but that they can cause earthquakes. Measured or anticipated seismic shocks associated with [...]
2011 Canada budget could benefit geothermal
In Canada, the new federal budget has CanGEA encouraged about the future of clean energy in the country. The organization’s new director, Alexander Richter, notes that the budget includes commitments that have implications for geothermal energy projects in the country. These are renewed funding of $97 million for technology and innovation in the areas of [...]
CO2 demonstration project underway
In Arizona, Utah’s GreenFire Energy has begun work to demonstrate a process that would use CO2 in harnessing geothermal energy. The process also has the potential for carbon sequestration and reduced water consumption in the use of geothermal power. Further, supercritical CO2 may actually be a better geothermal fluid than water in key ways. Studies [...]
