The Penola Project, South Australia: A Unique Hot Sedimentary Aquifer Development, Limestone Coast, South Australia

摘要

Panax Geothermal Ltd ("Panax") has secured several Geothermal Exploration Licences (GELs), over four Hot Sedimentary Aquifers (HSA) within troughs or grabens in the Otway Basin in southeast South Australia, covering an area of more than 3,000 km~2. The Limestone Coast Geothermal Project is designed to deliver the first proof that conventional geothermal resources within Australia's sedimentary basins can be used to generate large amounts of competitively priced, zero-emission, base-load power. Due to an existing comprehensive database acquired by the petroleum industry, the initial development of its Limestone Coast Geothermal Project is focused on the Penola Trough (GEL223).rnThe Penola Trough has been subjected to intensive oil and gas exploration, including 27 deep petroleum wells with wireline logging and conventional core measurements of reservoir porosity and permeability. In addition, there are 271 km~2 of 3D seismic and a significant amount of 2D seismic data, as. These data are available as part of the Open File data base and studies have shown that the over 1,000m thick Cretaceous Pretty Hill Formation (sandstones) of the Penola Trough has the capacity to deliver geothermal waters of ＞140℃ at high volumes, sufficient for the operation of a commercial, medium temperature geothermal power plant. The generating potential is large, as is evidenced by a recent independent Geothermal Resource assessment, which has estimated a "Measured Geothermal Resource" of 11,000 PJ for the Penola Trough.rnThe first well, Salamander 1, is the first in a series of wells in the development of a 50 MWe geothermalrnpower plant, which is likely to become the first grid connected geothermal power plant in Australia.rnA Pre-Feasibility study has also been compiled to assess the total cost per MWh of power produced after taking into account all plant and pump requirements. This study found that electricity can be sustainably generated at a cost of AUD63 per MWh.