Could Asia tap into the 'ring of fire'
Updated
As high fuel prices continue to affect Asia's economic health, there's growing interest in exploiting the earth's own geothermal energy. Analysts believe countries in the so-called Pacific "ring of fire" could derive enough energy to fully power their domestic economies. But there are high costs involved, and tapping into "volcano power" is potentially fraught with danger.
Presenter: Girish Sawlani
Speakers: Mario Marasigan, director of Energy Utilisation and Management Bureau, Department of Energy, Philippines; Lester Brown, president, Earth Policy Institute; Dr Mark Tingay, geothermal energy expert, Curtin University of Technology
SAWLANI: In the days of exorbitant fuels and energy prices and, countries are increasingly looking to extracting energy generated by intense heat from below the earth's surface.
It's known as geothermal energy and its potential was underscored by an MIT report, which found that the US alone has enough geothermal energy to supply the world's current needs for the next 30,000 years. That potential also could become a reality for some countries in Asia.
Dr Mark Tingay is an expert on geothermal energy from the Perth-based Curtin University of Technology.
TINGAY: Indonesia in particular and the Philippines have huge potential for geothermal power production. Due to their geological setting, they're both, as you might have heard in the Pacific Ring of Fire, they have a large number of active and recently active volcanoes. I think Indonesia has about 130 active volcanoes - about 500 volcanoes in all of their islands and Philippines about 18 active volcanoes and about 40 recently. They've got a unique geological setting that makes geothermal power particularly attractive.
SAWLANI: Founder of the Washington-based Earth Policy Institute, Lester Brown, believes Indonesia, which has been producing geothermal energy for over twenty years, has enough reserves to fully sustain its own energy requirements.
BROWN: The amount of geothermal energy in that country is enormous. I mean they could easily run their entire economy from geothermal energy alone.
SAWLANI: For the Philippines, the second largest producer of geothermal energy, it's a matter of priority when it comes to renewable energy.
Mario Marasigan heads the Energy Utilisation and Management bureau at the Philippines Department of Energy.
MARASIGAN: Geothermal energy would continue to dominate the renewable energy resources here in the Philippines in such a sense that geothermal energy can provide base load requirements. Unlike the other resources, particularly wind that are relatively intermittent, geothermal energy can provide continuous, reliable capacity at any given time.
SAWLANI: But harnessing the vast resources available form beneath the earth's surface is proving to be an arduous task. To begin with there's been far too little research into the development of geothermal energy. Lester Brown from the Earth Policy Institute.
BROWN: The world does not have a lot of experience. We haven't sort of reached major economies of scale in developing geothermal energy yet. Though we're moving in that direction certainly. It's beginning to catch on but we're still in the early stages and there's been relatively little work done to look at technologies form oil drilling to see which ones can be used to develop geothermal energy resource.
SAWLANI: For Indonesia, it's a case of bureaucratic and social challenges. In Bali for instance, projects have been halted after fears were raised that construction would impede upon sacred land and affect water supplies.
And for the Philippines, the problem lies in the massive upfront from costs involved in launching drilling projects. Mario Marasigan from the Department of Energy.
MARASIGAN: The main issue that besets our renewable energy development, particularly geothermal, is the huge upfront cost that is required for any development of geothermal resources. The cost of drilling one hole during the exploratory stage of resource development will take a lot of investor requirement. You know for Filipino investors, to come up with the huge investment cost for geothermal energy development is a little difficult. So it would take a multinational corporation to develop these kind of resources.
SAWLANI: Dr Mark Tingay from the Curtin University of Technology adds there are serious risks involved in extraction.
TINGAY: You put the region at high risk of landslides. There's also the risk of actually triggering off earthquakes such as what has effectively stopped geothermal power production in Basel in Switzerland.
SAWLANI: Despite the challenges that confront the development of infrastructure, Dr Tingay maintains it's crucial for nations across the world to start investing in geothermal energy.
TINGAY: I believe it's extremely important, in fact, for most countries to start investing geothermal power production. In terms of climate change issues and in terms of being able to being able to provide power from additional sources, geothermal really offers the best possibility for most countries to provide cheap, low emission base load continuous power.
