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Friends of the Earth

Brumby's geothermal first step to scrapping Surf Coast coal

National environmental organisation Friends of the Earth has welcomed today's announcement by the state government that it will provide up to $25 million for a major clean energy project that could create Victoria’s largest demonstration geothermal power plant.

The investment also means the government could shut down Alcoa's nearby coal fired power station and coal mine in the near future, said Friends of the Earth.

The Greenearth Energy project, located about 11 kilometres north-west of Anglesea, will be planned in two stages and today's announcement is for $5 million to go immediately for stage one, which will seek to confirm the extent and quality of hot sedimentary aquifers at the project site. If the geothermal resource meets expectations, the state government will provide an additional $20 million towards the construction of a $64 million 12MW geothermal power plant that can feed renewable power into the local grid. It is possible that the site is ultimately capable of supporting more than 140MW of renewable base-load power.

 “We warmly welcome this government investment of public funds in renewable technology” said Friends of the Earth campaigns co-ordinator Cam Walker. “It must be remembered that we already have the technology to shift our economy to a low carbon future. A combination of efficiency and significant investment in renewables would mean we could shift away from our current reliance on coal in a short period of time. Geothermal will be one significant part of the clean energy transition.”

“Just near the proposed geothermal site is Alcoa's 160 megawatt power station and brown coal mine which provides 40% of the energy to the Point Henry aluminium plant near Geelong. Alcoa's current agreement with the state government expires in 2011. Rapid development of the Greenearth project, if matched with further investments in renewables, would mean the state could cancel this agreement. This would signify the beginning of a serious transition from our reliance on brown coal – one of the dirtiest energy sources on the planet. And unlike so called 'clean coal' technology, geothermal and other renewables technology is available now, is incredibly job rich, and low in terms of it's water intensity.”

"The Surf Coast needs help to get out of dirty coal and shift to a clean energy future."

Further comment: Cam Walker, 0419 338 047