Sep 9, 2016

Australian Geothermal Power Project Stutters, Solar Project Moves Forward

In the latest Australian tech news, as one clean energy project gets shut down, another is prepared to move forward. 

A geothermal power project in southern Australia was shut down after officials deemed the project was not financially viable, ABC News reported. 

Geodynamics, an energy company, remediated several generation plants and test wells after the project was scrapped. 

The company sought to extract super heated water from three miles below the Earth's surface and use it to generate power. While the company was successful in the process, it only generated small amounts of electricity. 

"The technology worked, but unfortunately the cost of implementing the technology and also the cost of delivering the electricity that was produced to a market was just greater than the revenue stream that we could create," Geodynamics Chief Executive Chris Murray said.

Even as the geothermal project was shut down, a solar project was announced. 

Viking Cold Solutions announced at the Refrigerated Warehouse and Transportation Association Conference that it would launch a new solar energy storage project. 

The provider of thermal energy management solutions for supermarkets and cold storage facilities said it will combine its thermal energy storage system with rooftop solar photovoltaic technology. 

Renew Economy reported this will allow cold-storage facilities and supermarkets to intelligently store and selectively deploy photovoltaic generated power within refrigerators to cut energy costs.

This new project comes at a key point for the nation as 33 percent of electricity in southern Australia is produced from renewable sources. It has set an aggressive goal of 50 percent renewable generation by 2025.

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