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Regional contractor wins $500K energy contract

A geothermal contracting company has been awarded a renewable energy tender worth half a million dollars.

Geothermal Industries recently secured a contract for the Victorian Parliament House Extension in Melbourne.

The deal involves drilling 55-by-100 metre geothermal bore holes, which will provide the heating and cooling for the extension of Parliament House.

“They are doing a major addition to the existing building and underneath that building we’ll drill in the sub-basement floor,” Geothermal Industries managing director Nigel de Veth says.

“That’s where the heating and cooling of the building will happen, the energy cost savings will be around 70 per cent compared to conventional heating and cooling systems.”

Two trucks with specialised purpose built geothermal drilling equipment will leave the company’s Toowoomba site bound for Melbourne where staff are expected to use the equipment to start drilling as early as November 28.

Work is expected to be complete by Christmas, with other companies then installing the heat exchanger units, piping between bore holes and ducting.

“This is a landmark, government project in a state that really wants to progress their energy efficiencies. We’d love to see Queensland and Toowoomba join that vision,” de Veth says.

“We’ve picked up other jobs from Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide all looking to use geothermal ground source heating and cooling as a way to capitalise on ever increasing energy costs.”

The company recently shifted its focus away from drilling blast holes in mines to geothermal work.

“We see geothermal becoming a big part of our future, more so than mining,” says de Veth, adding he is keen to hire men and women out of the mining industry to work for his companies if tenders are won in Toowoomba or interstate.

“We’re going to be pushing hard that those people from mines looking for work to join our company and use their skills.”

Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise (TBSE) applauded Geothermal Industries on the contract win.

“We’ve assisted Geothermal Industries from inception over the past two years and hope this government tender leads to further opportunity in our region,” TSBE executive chairman Shane Charles says.

“The significance of this government building project highlights their capacity that should be utilised here.”

Sixty people work for Geothermal Industries and its associated companies, Deveth Drilling and Roc-Drill.

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