The company has been granted a 277 square kilometre conventional geothermal exploration licence over the volcanic-style geology of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands.

In June, Petratherm was granted rights to explore for and develop conventional geothermal projects on Tenerife, the archipelago’s largest island.

The Gran Canaria and Tenerfie projects are in addition to Petratherm’s two geothermal exploration leases just north of Barcelona and Madrid, where the company plans to develop hot dry, fractured rocks reservoirs.

“The award of the Gran Canaria licence represents a further step in our strategy to develop a portfolio of geothermal projects in commercially attractive jurisdictions and across the full spectrum of geothermal energy supply opportunities,” Petratherm managing director Terry Kallis said today.

“Gran Canaria supports a large local and tourist population of approximately 1 million people, placing large demand on peak power generation, in excess of 800 megawatts,” he said.

“Power consumption on the island has grown threefold in just 20 years and existing power generation is 94 percent dependent on expensive, high-emission fossil fuels.

“Any commercial geothermal development will have access to substantial transmission infrastructure within close proximity of our newly granted licence area.”

Gran Canaria is an active volcanic island, 200km west of Africa’s northern coastline. Three main volcanic-magmatic stages have been defined on the island with Petratherm’s new acreage spanning the area of most recent volcanism.

Kallis said geothermal research by Spanish geological survey teams had identified high geothermal temperature gradients on the tenement, of more than 70 degrees per kilometre.

Initial exploration work on Tenerife and Gran Canaria, both conventional geothermal projects, will involve geochemical assessment of thermal waters to ascertain fluid temperatures at depth.

This will be followed with magneto-telluric surveys to map out subterranean hot aquifers and identify any shallow magma sources before test drilling.

Petratherm’s flagship project is its highly advanced Paralana joint venture in South Australia’s northern Flinders Ranges which is being prepared for its next stage – drilling of two deep heat exchanger wells from late this year.