Australia: New Map of Renewable Energy Resources Including Geothermal

New South Wales government unveils renewable energy map to aid investment into Australia (Bioenergy Insight Magazine)

(Courtesy New South Wales Government)

The New South Wales (NSW) government has launched a renewable energy map to help drive investment into the Australian state.

The NSW Renewable Energy Resource Map provides renewable energy project developers with free access to geospatial data and information on the state’s renewable energy resources and highlights more than 201 sites across NSW.

The application is apparently the first comprehensive renewable energy resource map covering the entire state, detailing its resources potential and detailing existing infrastructure for solar, wind, geothermal, bioenergy, hydropower and marine resources.

Map of Geothermal Resources.......             Read More.........

Science & Technology: Call for Oil & Gas/Geothermal Cooperation

Geothermal Making Breakthroughs Using Oil Drilling Tech (Oil Price.com)

Oil and gas companies have earned a bad reputation through their drilling practices, yet their advances in drilling technology that have made possible the extraction of oil and gas from super-deep wells have also been highly beneficial to the exploitation of renewable resources, and more specifically geothermal energy.

The high temperature environment and the highly fractured rock in geothermal regions make drilling and completion very complex, most notably in the selection of tubular, downhole tools, and cementing materials. Geothermal drilling is still a small fraction of the activity of oil and gas companies, so much of the possible developments in advanced drilling and completion technologies for geothermal applications remain only a potential.

The approach of exploiting geothermal energy is very similar to that employed by oil and gas companies, which have been drilling wells of depths greater than 10 km. Such geothermal projects represent an opportunity for oil and gas companies to advance in technological development and diversify their revenue sources.

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Commonwealth of Dominica: Government Will Build 7 MW Geothermal Power Plant

Government To Construct Domestic Geothermal Plant (News Release)

Honorable Minister for Energy, Ian Douglas, has declared that Dominica has the resources to build a geothermal development program as a country.

The Energy Minister supported the decision made by the Honourable Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Dr. Roosevelt Skerrit, to establish a domestic geothermal plant through a special purpose vehicle (S.P.V).

The Honourable Prime Minister during his presentation stated that government will establish a company to build a seven megawatt geothermal plant in two stages of three point five megawatt each.

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Costa Rica: Geothermal Energy Provides Over 13% of Electricty

Electricity from renewable energy sources in Costa Rica close to 96.4% during the first half of 2016

(Courtesy CIA.gov)

According to preliminary data from the Centro Nacional de Control de Energía, which is part of the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), electricity production based on clean, renewable energy sources was close to 96.4% during the first half of 2016.

In spite of the drought affecting Costa Rica most of the first six months of the year, the bulk of the electricity came from hydro (69.4%); the rest from geothermal (13.4%), wind (12.2%), biomass (1.4%) and solar (less than 1%). A total of 4,242.6 Gwh were generated in the country during this period; only about 3.6% came from fossil-fuel burning plants.

According to ICE’s Executive President, the 96.4% was reached mainly because of the very high clean generation during June, i.e. about 99.6%. He added that at the end of 2016, in Costa Rica only 2% of the electricity may be produced from burning fossil fuels.

Sources:

• Producción de energía renovable alcanza 96,36% en Costa Rica
• Costa Rica cerró primer semestre con 96,36% de generación eléctrica renovable

(Thanks to GRC Member Marcelo Lippmann, Staff Scientist (retired) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the submission.)

Science & Technology: Method to Recover Gold from Geothermal Brine

ProAu, Protein for Gold Recovery (CTimes)

ProAu, a bio-protein, is produced by a special microbe that can absorb valuable metals from industrial wastewater. It is a unique thermal stable protein from hot springs, with high selectivity and fast absorption rates for gold recovery

Figure II: By combining geothermal and gold mining, there will be more economical resources available in the world

Taiwan-based Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI)’s ProAu provides a bio-adsorbent that effectively recovers gold in the form of nano-particles from industrial wastewater and geothermal streams at sub-ppm levels, bringing us new gold mines while contributing to a sustainable world we can all thrive in.

This technology can also be used for recovering gold from geothermal fluid. Since this mining operation has a potential to integrate with the geothermal power generation, it may generate extra revenue on top of geothermal energy itself.

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Education: Webinar on Geothermal/Oil-Gas Co-Production

Geothermal Co-Production Webinar - First steps towards a sustainable future (CanGEA)

North Dakota's first successful commercial enterprise 

to co-produce electricity using geothermal water from 

hydrocarbon production in the Williston Basin. 

Source: Kirby Baier of Continental Resources

Friday August 19th, 10:30 - 12:45 MDT

Tune in online August 19th for CanGEA's Co-Production webinar where we will discuss viable options of Geothermal/Petroleum energy co-generation, right at the wellhead. Co-production offers a sustainable "turn key" conversion of existing Oil and Gas drilling infrastructure by utilizing the hot production water resources already at surface as part of hydrocarbon extraction. It offers well owners and operators a holistic approach for harnessing and selling various forms of energy while diversifying their revenue streams and creating new jobs. Geothermal co-production can be the profitable and sustainable evolution of the Canadian oil and gas industry.

Agenda:

• Member Project Updates and Investor Financing Opportunities - Alison Thompson (CanGEA)
• Myriad of Profitable Uses for Geothermal Heat
• Pioneering the Co-Production Future - Will Gosnold (University of North Dakota, Principal researcher for the recent USDOE/industry co-produced fluids project)
• Discussion of Co-Production Development and Nuances - Maria Richards (President-Elect – Geothermal Resources Council) 
• Leduc #1 Living Energy Project - The Canadian Co-Production frontier - Mitch Pomphrey (Leduc No.1 Discovery Centre)
• Policy Making Power Profitable - Alex Kent (CanGEA)

Register.......

Montserrat: Geothermal Project Drilling Rig to Arrive Mid August

Geothermal development update, and Fibre optic plans approved (The Montserrat Reporter)

Montserrat Drilling Site on the Flank of the Soufriere Volcano, Bastien Poux, EGS, Inc.

As preparations for drilling a third geothermal well just south of the Week’s area above the Cork hill main road almost under St. George’s Hill, there comes further good news at the Governor’s press conference as Martin Dawson, the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID)’s country representative reported, “Geothermal is going very well.”

He said he was unable to give an exact date of the arrival of the drilling rig, “but I know the rig is on its way across the Pacific and they did encounter some bad weather around the Philippines area.”

“I anticipate that the drilling rig group will arrive on the island sometime mid-August around about the 20th,” he said.

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