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Thank you for inviting me to open the Salamander 1 well at the Panax Limestone Coast Geothermal Project.
This project is a pioneer in the exploitation of Hot Sedimentary Aquifers in Australia.
It will also test the potential of the Limestone Coast for geothermal development.
There is potentially a resource of up to 1,500 MW available in this region.
This project is close to existing grid connections - an important issue in geothermal energy generation.
Australia offers great opportunity to develop geothermal energy projects.
Work by Geoscience Australia suggests that extraction of one per cent of the energy from geothermal sources could yield 190 million petajoules of energy.
This is 26,000 times what our primary power usage was in 2005, which is a remarkable figure.
Geothermal energy is particularly important because of its ability to supply base-load electricity to the Australian grid from a zero carbon renewable source.
In doing so, it meets several Government objectives:
- To increase energy security by diversifying energy sources
- To reduce Australia's greenhouse gas emissions
- And to supply 20 per cent of Australia's electricity by 2020 from renewable sources.
These goals require substantial investment.
That's why the Government developed the $4.5 billion Clean Energy Initiative.
A major part of the Initiative will be delivered by the Australian Centre for Renewable Energy, or ACRE.
ACRE will consolidate investment in renewable energy technologies through supporting innovation along the development and commercialisation chain.
The $50 million Geothermal Drilling Program is a vital part of the Clean Energy Initiative.
The program supports the cost of geothermal proof-of-concept projects, such as this one.
Seven successful projects under the program are each receiving grants of $7 million to assist with the high cost of drilling deep geothermal wells.
In addition, two geothermal projects have been successful in their applications for funding under the Renewable Energy Demonstration Program.
These two projects add $153 million to the Government's funding commitment to accelerate the development of the geothermal industry.
They will provide more than 50MW of electricity generation capacity.
This additional Government investment ensures progress in demonstrating the potential of geothermal energy through the building of demonstration-scale power stations.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Australian Government is very pleased to have committed more than $200 million to accelerate geothermal energy development and deployment in Australia.
Our funding contributes to a total investment in this sector now in excess of $720 million.
In the transition to a low-carbon economy, geothermal innovation may have a very important role to play.
And Australia can be a world leader in its development.
Clean, reliable and affordable baseload energy is at stake, and I wish you every success with your project.
Thank you.