True Posted October 3, 2009 The announcement for this project was made in January, but I only just heard about it recently. The Univeristy of Western Australia is going to tap into the hot water basin 2.5Km underground and power heating, venting and air conditioning. It's part of a bigger study looking at the viability of geothermal power in the Perth basin. This seems like a pretty good source of sustainable power, as long as everyone respects native title. Here's a small quote and a link to the article from earlier this year. Just minutes from Perth city, scientists at the University of Western Australia plan to dig 2.5km down into the Perth basin and harness steam to power air-conditioners and heat swimming pools.Data collected from the project will also be used in the design of a desalination plant, which would utilise geothermal energy to create fresh water. Prof Klaus Regenauer-Lieb, a geothermal expert from UWA and head of GCE, said that while little is known about hot rocks in WA, scientists do know there is hot water down there. "Geothermal energy is classically used in volcanic settings in many countries such as the USA, Iceland and New Zealand for power generation, and has been used in WA for heating the swimming pools at Challenge Stadium and Christ Church Grammar School," Prof Regenauer-Lieb said. "We want to go one step further and use our natural hot geothermal water to air-condition cities." PerthNow Article from Jan 2009 The GCE (Geothermal Centre of Excellence) website http://www.geothermal.uwa.edu.au/programs has more technical info. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
