Project InnerSpace has launched the first-of-its-kind GeoMap Oceania, an interactive mapping tool which uncovers geothermal potential across a region.
The data collected from the tool estimates a recoverable geothermal resource potential of 1,596GW in Australia and 100GW in New Zealand – nearly 10-times each country’s current installed capacity.
GeoMap Oceania integrates data points from across the Earth’s surface and subsurface, including heat flow, thermal gradients, temperatures at depth, and heat-in-place volumes, alongside surface characteristics such as demand centres, industrial clusters, and access to transmission and other infrastructure to identify where drilling can access geothermal heat.
In New Zealand, conventional geothermal is already a major source of energy and GeoMap has identified significant additional opportunities for development. Australia has proven to be a vast region of untapped potential, with strong resources for district cooling in major cities like Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
Jamie Beard, Exectuive Director of Project InnerSpace, said, “Until GeoMap, there was no easily accessible tool to help stakeholders understand and quantify the geothermal resources beneath them, and thus this ubiquitous resource has been overlooked. Australia is an excellent example of untapped potential – with 10-times total energy demand hidden beneath the surface, and few indications on the surface that it is there.
“It is our hope that GeoMap will support stakeholders in advancing this massive but invisible potential into ‘wells in the ground’ development.”
The GeoMap technology has already been deployed in Asia and across the UK to aid in the development of untapped potential.