Australia:

The Heat is On, as Australia Plumbs the Depths (The Sydney Morning Herald)

The second of a two-part series on geothermal energy investigates whether Australia is making the most of its vast underground potential.

On the face of it, Australia's future is rosy: renewable energy, a World Wildlife Fund report claims, could meet all our electricity needs by the middle of the century – and at a cost little more than 0.1 to 0.2 per cent of gross domestic product.

Sad to say, none of this deterred the government and opposition from reaching a so-called "compromise deal" last week that slashes the nation's original target of 41,000 gigawatt-hours of annual renewable energy production by 2020 to 33,000 gigawatt-hours.

More is the pity given Australia's enviable range of renewable energy options, including hot rocks. This almost inexhaustible supply of heat beneath our largely arid island continent is ready and waiting to be harnessed, with Victoria and South Australia, in particular, veritable hot spots of geothermal potential.

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