Solar project looks for bright partner

Adelaide Advertiser
Tuesday 29/6/2010 Page: 41

GEOTHERMAL company Petratherm is seeking joint venture partners for its solar thermal project, Heliotherm. The South Australian-based company announced yesterday that the project had proceeded to the second round for the Australian Solar Institute's $93 million grant program. Heliotherm is 100% owned by Petratherm, which has entered an exclusive agreement with the University of Adelaide to develop and commercialise the technology.

Using gas, geothermal and solar technologies, the project aims to cut the cost of solar thermal technology by up to 40%. Petratherm managing director Terry Kallis said he was confident of securing a $5 million grant from the ASI to help advance the project. "We are very excited about this because it is really a solar thermal project, not a geothermal project, and it is something that can be applied quite widely," Mr Kallis said.

The $5 million would be used towards setting up a laboratory at the university's Thebarton campus to test the project technology. Mr Kallis said Heliotherm would have the exclusive licence to commercialise the intellectual property of the project, making it an attractive joint venture proposition for energy retailers. "As part of developing the Heliotherm technology, we will be looking at two key players in addition to the university and ourselves," he said.

"One of them will be a technology partner, someone who has worked in solar technology, and the second is we are happy to talk to energy companies that may want to joint venture into our exciting development. There will be many projects it (the technology) can be applied to, not just our project, and at the end of the day unless we have a larger partner it makes it difficult to fund."

"For the energy joint venture partner, it also gives them a hedge against other alternative technologies that they have to have as part of their RET (renewable energy target) obligations." He said the $5 million grant it is seeking and a $1.5 million grant it has already secured would need to be matched in cash or kind by both Petratherm and the university. Meanwhile, Petratherm has welcomed changes to the RET scheme passed by the Senate last Thursday. Mr Kallis said the changes would provide greater investment certainty for the renewable energy sector.