Panax managing director Bertus de Graaf said Our measured resource has been determined to be 11,000 petajoules and keep in mind that 1000 petajoules in theory can produce 100 megawatts continuously.
And 100 megawatts is enough to supply a town of 50,000 people.
We have the luxury of waiting a bit, Graaf said.
We’re not desperate to do a deal for the sake of staying alive.”
Our plan is to start drilling in September this year … and we should be in production with our first demonstration plant by 2011.
Graaf said the cost of producing geothermal power includes connection to the power grid, would be around $65 per megawatt hour.
A renewable energy certificate, awarded because of geothermal’s low level of carbon emissions, will then mean the producer is given a rebate of $50 per megawatt hour, decreasing the production cost to $15.
Graff said geothermal power has been cost effective compared to other forms of energy, including wind, solar, black coal and gas-fired power generation.
