1 km3 of hot rocks initially at 200ºC has the potential to produce about 10 MW electricity annually if the rock temperature falls to 180 ºC over 20 years.

Olympic Dam Project

The Olympic Dam EGS Project is a wholly owned Green Rock Energy Limited project, located in central South Australia within a few kms of BHP Billiton Ltd’s Olympic Dam copper operation and the Roxby Downs township and a high voltage power line linked to the national electricity grid connecting eastern Australia. Green Rock Energy holds 2,899 square kilometresof Geothermal Exploration Licences (GELs) over buried hot granites. In the area surrounding Olympic Dam mine.

Location

Location is the key advantage of the Olympic Dam geothermal energy project. It is located close to a long life local market and to an existing power grid connected to the major cities in eastern Australia and where drilling by WMC and others has located an extensive heat flow anomaly. There is a growing power demand from the Olympic Dam mine and the community. Closeness to potential markets will enable the Company to manage risks by developing the project incrementally and to generate energy on a pilot scale at first which could be utilised by local markets before proceeding to full commercial scale electricity supply.

Infrastructure

Modern efficient infrastructure, local technical and engineering services and the modern
Roxby Downs Town are all located within the perimeter of the Company’s Geothermal Exploration Licenses(GEL's).

Access

There is good access to and within the GEL’s via sealed roads and an all weather air strip with twice daily scheduled commercial air services to Adelaide.

Hungarian Ortaháza Project

The Campany's Hungarian project is a joint venture between Green Rock Energy (32%) and Hungary’s largest oil and gas company MOL (36%) and Enex hf (32%) a leading Icelandic geothermal consulting and development company which is owned by Icelandic power and drilling companies. The objective of the project is to utilise hot water produced from existing but out-of-use petroleum wells owned by MOL to generate heat and establish geothermal power plants throughout Hungary. Also, to forge relationships with major internationally experienced energy companies.

Location

The Ortaháza Project is located near Iklódbördöce (Zala County), in south west Hungary. This project arose after Enex carried out a study of over 70 wells selected by MOL out of thousands owned by MOL to ascertain their potential for exploitation of geothermal energy. MOL and Enex then selected a pair of wells (Ortaháza -3 & Ortaháza -5) as the most promising of a number of likely geothermal sites to carry out the initial pilot production project. The wells drilled by MOL into the Triassic Kaarst limestone reservoir rocks were chosen because they had demonstrated excellent reservoir characteristics, water chemistry
and productivity and a suitable temperature for electricity production and direct heat uses.
Success with the Ortaháza Project will result in the establishment of Central Europe’s first geothermal power plant and will lead to others using existing unused wells in Hungary.

Government Incentitives

Hungary’s government has introduced policies to encourage the use of renewable energy. The country intends to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels for industrial and domestic heating and to increase its use of renewable sources of power to 6% by 2010. Hungary also has implemented incentives for supply of renewable electricity by guaranteeing priority access to power grids and providing an attractive electricity price for electricity generated from geothermal energy sources compared to the much lower prices paid for electricity generated from fossil fuels.

World Bank Support

The World Bank approved a US$3.7 million Geological Risk Insurance for Green Rock Energy Limited’s Hungarian Project. The Geological Risk Insurance provides to the joint venturers of the Project, a refund of the major costs associated with the testing of the wells if the water flow rates do not achieve desired levels. This insurance cover significantly reduces the financial risks associated with the Project and is the first in a series of projects the Geothermal Energy Development Program, or GeoFund, envisage supporting over the next 8 years. The GeoFund is funded by the Global Environment Facility Trust Fund and is implemented jointly by the World Bank and the IFC.

The overall objective of the GeoFund is to systematically promote the use of geothermal energy in Europe and the Central Asia region by removing barriers to the development of geothermal energy leading to greater diversification in energy use and increase in demand for, and supply of, geothermal energy projects.