Queensland government-funded geologists found a geothermal energy basin with the potential to generate low-emissions power for the whole of the Australian state's northwest, State Premier Anna Bligh said.
The Millungera Basin may hold energy, contained in hot underground rocks, to rival the Cooper Basin on the South Australian border, Bligh said in a July 20 statement on the government's Web site. The government will consider releasing land areas for exploration, Energy Minister Geoff Wilson said.
Geodynamics Ltd. and Petratherm Ltd. are among companies working in central and southern Australia to tap heat from granites buried up to 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) underground to convert to steam to drive power turbines. The Millungera Basin, located east of Cloncurry, is about 300 kilometers long and 40-50 kilometers wide.
“Geothermal energy has the potential to generate one fifth of Australia's total electricity needs over the next 25 years without producing any carbon dioxide emissions,'' Bligh said in the statement. “The discovery of a new, untapped basin of this size is rare anywhere in the world.''
The Millungera Basin may also hold “huge'' amounts of coal seam gas, the government said.
