The commissioning of the Winton geothermal power plant and its connection to the grid should take place in late January or early February next year
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| The completed Winton generators are ready to be shipped to the western Queensland site. (Supplied: Jari Ihalainen) |
Thargomindah, approximately 1,000 kilometres west of Brisbane, is at the end of the line on the electricity grid, and residents say it causes frequent blackouts.
In order to tackle the power issue the local government has decided to establish a geothermal power plant, and work to flip the existing formula by pushing energy back into the network from the west to the east.
"In layman's terms what we're looking at is a glorified steam turbine with a solar load-following operation... so we're taking the water out of the ground which is the Great Artesian Basin at 83 to 86 degrees Celsius, and then running that through a power plant which converts the heat into energy," Bulloo Shire Council CEO Edwina Marks said.
Dr Marks said the project has reached the concept design stage, and has attracted some state government help with a $3.6 million dollar grant.
