Australia: Core promise: green energy

At an isolated rig in the South Australian outback, hope is growing that a clean way to fuel the future can be drawn from hot rocks thousands of metres below the Earth’s surface.

OF ALL the oil and natural gas rigs dotted through South Australia’s treeless Cooper Basin, the tallest is Habanero 3, named after one of the world’s hottest chillies, the South American habanero. It is a beacon of hope for a clean, green future because it is drilling not for gas or oil but for heat that can be brought to the surface from the Earth’s hot outer core
“The world is watching what we are doing out at Innamincka,” says one of the private investors pouring money into Australia’s geothermal future. “Countries are looking to see what we’ve got, because we believe we have got the hottest rock within five kilometres of the Earth’s surface.”

He is excited