Company seeks cash for green power plant

Jessica Benton
A GREEN energy company is seeking investors for a geothermal power plant in the Geelong region.
Greenearth Energy plans to fund its $20 million project with $7 million from Federal Government and the rest from “key stakeholders”.
Greenearth Energy managing director Mark Miller said large-scale energy users, investors and venture capital groups were potential targets to invest in the state’s first geothermal power plant.
However, the Government funding was essential to the project, he said.
“We’re eagerly awaiting a final decision from the Federal Government whether it will award us the funding. Once we have that advice we’ll be going out to the market and will be ramping up talks with investors,” Mr Miller said.
“We’re looking for partners to provide the balance and the partners will basically own a stake in the geothermal plant if and when it’s developed.”
Greenearth has run studies around Geelong, the Bellarine Peninsula and Surf Coast in search of hot rocks under ground with potential to generate electricity.
The plant would draw heat from “hot rocks” deep underground to generate electricity.
The company found that the region had potential to supply 150 times Victoria’s energy requirements after drilling near Moriac and Geelong’s Armstrong Creek urban growth area for “wet hot rocks” to generate renewable, green energy.
Angelsea was among suitable locations for a geothermal power station, Mr Miller said.
But the company had to carry out more drilling tests to determine whether it could establish a power plant.
“The next stage once we secure funding is to conduct more drilling and then if that’s successful we’ll look at setting up the power plant,” he said.
“Geelong is extremely well-placed for this sort of thing when you look at its proximity to the ocean, its potential base-load for geothermal energy and its high level of energy users.”