Petratherm to expand SA hot rocks plant

partners to develop its 'hot rocks' geothermal field in South Australia for commercialisation.
Managing director Terry Kallis was in Sydney this week to establish joint venture arrangements with targeted partners for the next stage of development of the company's Paralana project in South Australia.
Mr Kallis says a geothermal power station to be set up at the Paralana site will eventually service some of the energy needs of South Australia and potentially other parts of the country within the next two to three years.
"We think we can

The potential is huge and it's a renewable energy source that could provide power 24 hours a day seven days a week, and eventually compete with the other power sources available."
The cost to consumers would be somewhere between $50 to $60 a megawatt hour or five to six cents per kilowatt hour, Mr Kallis said.
"It's slightly more expensive than non-renewable resources in the short term but cheaper than other renewable resources now," Mr Kallis said.
"In comparison, coal is about $40 per megawatt hour, gas $47 or other renewable resources like wind or nuclear at $75 to $80."
Mr Kallis said the company was poised to enter its next major stage of development with the creation of an underground heat exchanger at the Paralana site involved drilling wells of between 3.5 and four kilometres.
Completion of this stage would allow the company to meet an agreement Petratherm signed with Heathgate Resources last month, he said.
The agreement will see a small-scale plant of around 7.5 megawatts created to meet local supply needs of Heathgate's Beverley Uranium Mine, located 11 kilometres away.
Once achieved, Mr Kallis said the development would then move into 260 to 520 megawatts over the next two years.
The company last month placed shares to raise $2.08 million to fund the preparation work for drilling at the site.
Petratherm also expects to hear back soon on a resource consent application it made for another potential geothermal energy site in South Australia.
Hot rocks energy is a renewable energy source that extracts heat from subterranean granite by circulating water through them and flowing it into a geothermal power station.
Petratherm shares ended steady on Friday at 41 cents.