Skip to main content

Tata Power acquiring 11.4% stake in Australian geothermal energy co

(The Hindu Business Line)Tata Power on Thursday announced it would acquire a 11.4 per cent stake in Geodynamics Ltd, an Australian company specialising in geothermal energy, for Rs 165 crore. Geothermal energy is the natural heat emanating from within the earth.

When rain water comes into contact with heat it produces steam, which is used for producing power. The company would acquire 29.4 million shares of Geodynamics. After allotment it would be equivalent to 10 per cent of the increased share capital, according to a Tata Power press release.

The shares will be acquired by Tata Power at an issue price of Australia $1.50 or about Rs 56.25. As a part of the investment, Tata Power will also get a directorship on the board of Geodynamics.

Both companies have also agreed to review the potential of geothermal prospects outside Australia. This alliance also helps Tata Power in securing a foothold in the growing renewable energy market in Australia, the release said.

Geodynamics has a market capitalisation in excess of A$350 million. The company has developed enhanced geothermal systems technology. It has geothermal exploration interests in three Australian States including the licence for exploring 2000 sq km of area in the Cooper Basin, which is spread across South Australia and extends into Queensland.

Mr Prasad Menon, Managing Director, Tata Power, said the partnership strengthens the company’s renewable portfolio and creates opportunities to get a foothold in the growing renewable energy market in Australia.”

Geothermal energy is the natural heat found within the earth, where temperature increases with depth, typically by 10-50 degree Celsius/km. In enhanced geothermal systems technology heat is extracted from granites located at a depth of a more than 4,000 metres by circulating water through them in an artificially-engineered reservoir.

The heated water returns to the surface under pressure and is converted into electricity via a heat exchanger and conventional geothermal power plant. The technology can potentially enable the setting up of base load power plants.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Stock Market says Merry Christmas to Investors

Sensex today closed 691.55 point up at 19854.12 , Nifty was up 218 points at 5985.10. It is the 6th bigeest gain in oneday. Today's main contributors are IT stocks. Wipro was up at 535.30 (+8.86%), Infosys up at 1810.90(+6.63%) and Satyam closed at 454.55 up by 6.28%. The buying activity was wide-base and lifted almost all the sectoral indices. Sector wise performance was as follows - BSE IT 4581.61 (+260.98) BSE Healthcare 4294.83(+52.30) BSE FMCG2218.74(+20.29) BANKEX 11101.74 (+363.15) BSE Auto5586.83(+45.57) BSE TECk3961.96 (+185.00) BSE PSU 9830.01 (+317.11) Today BSE Midcap closed at 9211.71 up by 186.17 and BSE Smallcap index closed at 11980.57 up by 167.25 points.

News - Economy

Interest rates unlikely to go down (The Economic Times 4th Jan 2008)Interest rates are unlikely to fall in near future as it was expected with the State Bank of India raising the fixed deposit rate of various maturities up to 1.5 percentage points. Other banks are also planning to raise deposit rates. After SBI increasing deposit rates, other banks have no choice but to raise the rates to mobilize resources in the domestic market, chairman of a public sector bank said. As the cost of funds for banks will increase, they will resort to raising the lending rates. A senior banker said banks would announce the increased rates in near future. More Gold zooms past Rs 11,000 per 10 gm (The Hindu Businessline 4th Jan 2008)Gold prices made history as they soared to a record $ 865.35 an ounce in the London A.M fixing on Thursday, tracking which the domestic gold surged to Rs. 11,000 per 10 gm. On Wednesday, gold was fixed at $ 840.75/oz in London while in the Indian market it quoted at Rs 10,70

IIP records negative growth of 0.4% in Oct

T he country's industrial output shrunk for the first time in many years to a record a negative growth of 0.4 per cent in October, stifled by manufacturing sector -- for rescuing which the government announced a stimulus package earlier this mo nth. Output had grown by 5.45 per cent in September, and 12.2 per cent in October, 2007. The Index for Industrial Production numbers for the seven-month period ended October was 4.1 per cent against 9.9 per cent a year ago. Manufacturing sector, which accounts for 80 per cent of the index, declined to 1.2 per cent from 13.8 per cent in the year-ago period. Only earlier this month, the government sought to rescue manufacturers by announcing an across-the-board (barring petroleum goods) four per cent cut in excise duty. Electricity sector grew by 4.4 per cent during the month, bettering 4.2 per cent output of the year-ago period, while mining sector grew by a slower 2.8 per cent against 5.1 per cent in the previous year's comparable period