Although wind power is expected to dominate the early years of the RET scheme which, pending government approval, will expand the previous Mandatory Renewable Energy Target (MRET) by over four times to 45 000 gigawatt-hours in 2020, a number of leading energy utilities in Australia are looking to geothermal energy to meet future requirements.
Origin told the UBS Energy and Utilities Conference that industry-scale geothermal installations could be a better long-term solution to meeting its RET targets, while AGL said geothermal would likely play a key role in base-load generation, even if some projects (although not its own) faced significant transmission costs.
Origin is a joint venture partner with Geodynamics, while AGL has a 10% interest in another fledgling geothermal producer, Torrens Energy, and the right to take up to a 50% stake in its project in exchange for funding.
Geothermal producers estimate they could have 2,200 MW of geothermal capacity in place by 2020, while the Australian Geothermal Energy Association and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) report that direct employment in the industry could amount to 3,800 full-time jobs by 2020, more than double by 2030, and jump to more than 17,300 by 2050.
Another report released last week by WWF, this time in conjunction with ocean energy producer Carnegie Corp, predicts a further 3,200 jobs would be created if Carnegie met its goal of 1,500 MW of ocean energy capacity by 2020.
However, both reports highlight that for ocean and geothermal technologies to meet their potential as quickly as possible, the RET would need to be strengthened, possibly through banding, with extra credits being allocated to emerging technologies, direct assistance for drilling and an expansion of early development programs.
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