This article is 17 years old. Images might not display.
More than 154,000 square kilometres of unallocated land across Victoria will become available for geothermal exploration under permits available to the industry.
Already searching for geothermal resources in Victoria are ASX-hopefuls Hot Rocks Ltd and Greenearth Energy.
In the last two years, the number of companies exploring for geothermal energy sources in Australia has doubled, Batchelor said.