Is the Australian geothermal industry “Gathering steam”?

Abstract

The Australian geothermal sector is seeing unprecedented levels of permit activity with a total of 125 granted geothermal permits, accepted geothermal applications or retention licences, as of August 2024. This paper explores the nature of the industry in Australia at the current time. Tenement holders are a mixture of large corporates (e.g. Santos) to smaller ventures. Permit activity is spread across a range of geological settings and in areas which overlay residential, rural and remote areas of Australia. The greatest level of activity is in South Australia (43 tenements), followed by the Northern Territory (33) and Queensland (26). Western Australia has seen new permit activity with 14 permits awarded in mid-2023. Those permits are the first awarded in that state since 2011.
Proposed projects include overlapping resource tenures such including coal mines and oil or gas fields. Other projects are considering repurposing oil wells, the interplay between geothermal and hydrogen, silica production, proximity to population and infrastructure and direct use. Some projects are in government designated "renewable energy zones". Both conventional well/drilling technology is being considered as well as newer closed loop designs.
While new Australian projects have not yet started to deliver electricity to the grid, we believe the sector in Australia is "gathering steam" (idiomatically) in the sense that the industry is gaining momentum in a market where new renewable energy installations are usually dominated by (intermittent) wind and solar. This work concludes by summarising the opportunities geothermal has in Australia, and the roadblocks to its further development.