Flannery’s Investment Cools

Posted on Sun 01/09/2011 by PA Pundits - International

By Andrew Bolt

The Flannery mentioned in the title is Australia’s Professor Tim Flannery, the chief Climate Change/Global Warming Alarmist here in Australia…..TonyfromOz.

Getting “green” power by pumping water onto hot rocks deep below the surface will be not just a blessing but a doddle, claims Alarmist of the Year Tim Flannery:

The social licence of coal to operate is rapidly being withdrawn globally… We’ve seen it with asbestos. We’ll see it with coal… There are hot rocks in South Australia that potentially have enough embedded energy in them to run Australia’s economy for the best part of a century. They are not being fully exploited yet but the technology to extract that energy and turn it into electricity is relatively straightforward.

What Flannery rarely disclosed when praising geo-thermal power was that he was an investor in that very technology:

Bolt: You’re an investor in geothermal technology, aren’t you?

Flannery: Yeah, I am. Indeed.

But never mind. With the well-connected Flannery spruiking the technology, the Rudd Government gave $90 million of your money to Geodymanics, and promised to make coal-fired power so much more expensive with some form of “carbon tax” that geo-thermal power might even start to make financial sense.

Trouble is, alas, that the technology was not so “straightforward”, for a start, as Geodynamics discovered:

On April 24 (2009), shortly after applying for the Fed Govt grant, the high-strength steel inside the Habanero 3 well broke allowing briny “reservoir fluid” and steam to gush to the surface. ASX releases reveal the 4221m-deep well was only 2 months old. It was to supply the pilot plant, now delayed.

Dissolved carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulphide in the “reservoir fluid” caused the steel to become brittle. Two other wells were also damaged. Fluid and steam continued to flow from the wells for at least 3 weeks before they were plugged with cement.

All three wells are now on hold indefinitely and the pilot plant is delayed by up to 9 months, according to ASX releases. The company is claiming it on insurance.

And even all the Government’s help hasn’t stopped the Geodynamics share price from going south, along with Flannery’s investment – and his credibility.

Warwick Hughes has some thoughts about the folly of governments trying to pick winners.

Andrew Bolt is a journalist and columnist writing for The Herald Sun in Melbourne Victoria Australia.

Read more excellent articles from Andrew Bolt’s Blog

Andrew Bolt’s columns appear in Melbourne’s Herald Sun, Sydney’s Daily Telegraph and Adelaide’s Advertiser. He runs the most-read political blog in Australia and is a regular commentator on Channel 9′s Today show and ABC TV’s Insiders. He will be heard from Monday to Friday at 8am on the breakfast show of new radio station MTR 1377, and his book Still Not Sorry remains very widely read.