Australian geothermal project

From 2015:

Winton council to go ahead with $3.5m geothermal power plant in bid to ease electricity costs
www.abc.net.au/news/2015-07-21/outback-qld-council-looks-to-…
A western Queensland shire council says it will go ahead with a plan to build a $3.5 million geothermal plant. The Winton Shire Council said it would need to borrow some money for the construction but a geothermal power plant could save $15 million over 20 years in electricity costs…

Mayor Butch Lenton said the plant should be operational by the end of 2016…“We wouldn’t have pulled it on if there were risks. There’s been plenty of homework on it and [we’ve] been over it and over it,” he said.

From last month:

Council launches legal action over $4m geothermal plant that’s never delivered power
www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-30/winton-council-legal-action-g…
A $4-million geothermal power plant in Winton was built…set to be the only operating geothermal power plant in the country…

But more than two years since construction finished, it has never delivered power and is not operational…“It did become operational, but during that commissioning stage there were problems, so it wouldn’t have been able to maintain operation and definitely wouldn’t have been able to run as anticipated. It was just decided just to shut it down and try to rectify these issues.” Winton Shire Council is now suing Peak Services over the failed project…

The Winton plant was one of several the LGAQ had planned for western Queensland. Others slated for Thargomindah, Quilpie, Normanton, and Ilfracombe near Longreach, have all stalled.

DB2

The Austrialians need to talk to the government of Iceland for geothermal advice:

Iceland has a 99.96% renewable energy supply
Reykjavík, Iceland’s capital has the biggest district heating system in the world
The famous Blue Lagoon is entirely powered by geothermal energy
Iceland has over 600 hot springs and 200 volcanoes
The hot water is so cheap in Iceland that Icelanders are known for their long showers
When a space gets too warm Icelanders are more likely to open up a window than to turn down the heat

5 of Iceland’s biggest power plants are: Hellisheiði Power Station (303 MW)
Nesjavellir Geothermal Power Station (120 MW)
Reykjanes Power Station (100 MW)
Svartsengi Power Station (76.5 MW)
Krafla Power Station (60 MW)
Þeistareykir Power Station (45 MW)

A friend was there in January to see the Aurora Borealis and said the hot springs spa was really nice.

https://adventures.is/information/geothermal-energy-iceland/…

OTFoolish

85 deg C is a bit low for a powerplant. Water boils at 100c. High pressure steam would require higher temperatures.

You would probably use some heat transfer vapor to drive the turbines. Non-flammable like Freon. Or volatile organics like ether or methylene chloride.

Sometimes the water turns out to be corrosive.

Need more details. You suspect that Iceland’s volcanos are much hotter.