In parts of arid outback Queensland, bore water pumped from deep underground is so hot it needs cooling before drinking.
A $4-million geothermal power plant in Winton was built to use the naturally hot water to create electricity.
The renewable energy project was set to be the only operating geothermal power plant in the country and was touted as the start of a geothermal windfall in the region.
But more than two years since construction finished, it has never delivered power and is not operational.
"It's bloody disappointing, to put it mildly, for such a great potential for the water that comes into town," Winton Shire Council Mayor Gavin Baskett said.
Great expectations
The plant was designed to use 86 degree Celsius hot water from the Great Artesian Basin to generate electricity to power council buildings and the town's museum, the Waltzing Matilda Centre.
In a concept design study, project manager Peak Services — which is owned by the Local Government Association of Queensland (LGAQ)— estimated that the council could save more than $15 million over the first 20 years of operation.
"I can understand the councillors at the time seeing these fantastic figures and the potential and what they could do with the money to provide services and infrastructure to the community," Mr Baskett said.
Construction was finished in 2019 but issues arose in the commissioning stage of the project.
"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."
Local council takes legal action
Winton Shire Council is now suing Peak Services over the failed project.
Court documents allege a slew of technical issues and management failures, which the council fears may ultimately make the plant "worthless".
Peak Services is yet to file a defence.
"It is inappropriate to comment as the matter is before the courts," a Peak Services spokesperson said.
Former councillors who approved the project in 2016 said they trusted Peak Services expertise completely at the time.
"They did pitch it that it was going to be a good thing for the town, and we were the first people to do it," former councillor Joel Mann said.
"Each time they told us more about it, it just wasn't viable.
Mr Mann and fellow councillor Travis Harbour voted for a motion to ditch the project prior to construction, and switch to a solar project.
That motion was knocked back.
"The feeling was it was too far gone down the process," Mr Harbour said.
"But to my way of thinking, if you tie a horse up to a tree and it starts raining and there's floodwaters rising, you don't just stay there and shake your shoulders and watch the horse drown."
'Dodged a bullet'
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.
Bulloo Shire Council Mayor John Ferguson said Peak Services approached them with the idea of a geothermal power plant in Thargomindah and the state government awarded a $3.6 million grant for the project in 2017.
"The project we wanted to do was to power the whole town, so give people cheap electricity," Mr Ferguson said.
"All the news that we were getting out of Winton was that it wasn't working yet, to lay off, so we did that.
"We did dodge a bullet."
Future of geothermal plant in the balance
Winton Shire Council is trying to determine whether the project is salvageable or to cut their losses.
"Trying to work out a way to go forward that's best for everybody, especially our ratepayers," Mr Baskett said.
"That is one of the discussions we are having at the moment, how much it will cost to get the plant up to the operational standard that we expect and who will pay for that.
"On council's side, we think we've supplied enough of the funds so far to get it where it is and we don't really want to be putting any more into it."
Lenny Coyte, who worked for the technology company involved in the project, Green Thermal Energy Technologies, said the Winton plant can be fixed.
"There were some issues in the early days … but that doesn't say that the technology won't work. The technology does in fact work," Mr Coyte said.
Mr Mann said the plant is a sore point in the town among locals.
"It's described as a white elephant," Mr Mann said.
Geothermal debate continues
Martin Pujol, principal hydrogeologist at Rockwater, said at 86C, the Winton project would have been one of the lowest temperatures globally used to produce electricity.
"It is unfortunate that technical issues have meant the project hasn't delivered on the promises, however, producing electricity was always going to be challenging at these low temperatures," Mr Pujol said.
"Using the energy directly, which doesn't require any conversion, has not been as sexy for some reason.
"It's very much been the quiet achiever … all of the geothermal projects in Australia at the moment are all producing heat."
Despite this setback, the town of Winton remains open to future opportunities in renewable energy.
"I haven't lost faith in them but I'll be treading carefully moving forward," Mr Baskett said.
