The Northern Territory possesses enough potential geothermal power reserves within 5 kilometres of the surfrace to power to meet Australia’s current annual energy demand for 50,000 years.

 

Hot Dry Rocks, a consultancy firm run by geophysicists and geologists, estimated the Northern Territory’s geothermal potential after a team of international experts completed the mapping of the world’s hot rocks, finding that there are enough geothermal reserves to replace the territory’s gas-powered electricity 1600 times over.

 

"This is clean, renewable energy that is realistically accessible today with existing drilling and power conversion technologies," Dr Graeme Beardsmore, HDR’s Managing Director, said.

 

"It is one of the most abundant sources of renewable energy available and is more than sufficient to replace coal and gas power supply."

 

Further information about Hot Dry Rocks is available at http://www.hotdryrocks.com/