A report commissioned from the International Geothermal Expert Group to assess whether there are plausible commercialisation pathways, for cost-competitive and utility-scale geothermal energy in Australia without long-term subsidy.
Report extract
The scope of work undertaken by the IGEG complies with the Terms of Reference that were provided to it by the ARENA Board. The IGEG was asked to determine, and describe where relevant, whether there are plausible commercialisation pathways out to 2020 and 2030, without long-term subsidy, for the Australian geothermal sector to deliver cost-competitive and utility-scale energy. In forming its determination, the IGEG was asked to:
- Critically evaluate the performance of the geothermal sector in terms of how effectively it had used private and public funding to date and to provide a SWOT analysis of the sector.
- Identify the main barriers facing geothermal pilot and demonstration projects (technical, physical, economic, institutional and policy), the main barriers to commercialisation in the geothermal sector, and key gaps in data, information and knowledge.