Geothermal Industries secure $500,000 tender for government building upgrades

TOOWOOMBA’S Geothermal Industries has secured a $500,000 tender for work on the extension of Parliament House in Melbourne. 

Geothermal Industries Managing Director Nigel de Veth said the tender was a success story for the renewable energy industry and the Toowoomba region’s workforce.

“We will drill 55 by 100 metre geothermal bore holes which will provide the heating and cooling for the extension of Melbourne’s Parliament House. They are doing a major addition to the existing building and underneath that building we’ll drill in the sub-basement floor,” Mr de Veth said.

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

Two trucks with specialised purpose built geothermal drilling equipment will leave Toowoomba site bound for Melbourne in the coming week where it is expected drilling will start on November 28.

Geothermal Industries is expected to finish their part of the build 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,” Mr de Veth said. 

“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.

About 60 people work for Geothermal Industries and associated companies Deveth Drilling and Roc-Drill.

“This tender proves the capacity we have here in the Toowoomba region and we would love to boost our region with geothermal solutions.”

“The first project we did was here in Toowoomba at our own facility this year.”

Mr de Veth said his main work consisted of drilling blast holes in mines. Instability in this sector has changed his focus to geothermal.

“We see geothermal becoming a big part of our future, more so than mining,” he said.

Mr de Veth said he would like to hire men and women out of the mining industry to work for his companies if tenders picked up in the Toowoomba region, or continued in other states.

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

Mr de Veth said he hoped major project contracts in the Toowoomba region would look to geothermal heating and cooling solutions. The option to retrofit business is also available.

“The payoff for installation is often just a few short years with the huge energy cost savings,” he said.

Geothermal Industries are proud Toowoomba and Surat Basin Platinum members.

TSBE executive chairman Shane Charles said Geothermal Industries was well established as a leader in their field in the region.

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

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

This month Geothermal Industries opened its doors for a group of high-school students from Clifford Park Special School to see the state-of-the-art equipment and tour the site.

This is the first-time Geothermal Industries has opened the site for a school group.

Mr de Veth said he was hoping this would be the first of many site tours for students to tour, and called for other businesses in Toowoomba to host school groups.

“We want to see more opportunities for high-school students to explore future career options. This can be the first step for students looking at traineeship and apprenticeship options.”