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Jim Lawless wears several hats, all geothermally warmed, as David Palmer found out, and he is hot over Government apathy.
Well, I did ask about his life outside work. He thought for a moment, then mentioned scuba diving as something he has managed to fit into the odd weekend between projects. “Somebody once asked my boss at the time where he lived, and he said, ‘Singapore Airlines.’ It certainly has been a bit like that. It is difficult for families. I’m trying to reduce my international travel. In 2007 I did 14 international trips, last year I got it down to eight.” To understand Lawless’ role in the geothermal industry it helps to know that back in the 1970s he added a Diploma of Teaching to his Master of Science, and two of his first three jobs were as a Waikato Technical Institute tutor and Whangarei Boys’ High School teacher. “I’ve always had a bit of a role in education. One of the things that SKM has pursued is to promote technical seminars around the world, and I’ve done a lot of those both in geothermal and in mineral exploration. Geothermal skills are something New Zealand can export. As a country we have made a considerable amount of income from this because it requires low capital. We’re not selling hardware but experience.” He says some have questioned the wisdom of giving away intellectual property. “But geothermal isn’t rocket science. The important thing isn’t the information and techniques – all that’s publicly available – it’s the expertise. A lot of places have geothermal, but relatively few countries have the level of expertise in the high temperature resources we’re dealing with, and are prepared to make it available to other countries. The main sources of consultancy for commercial projects are New Zealand, the US, Iceland and the Philippines.” His teaching inclination is what led Lawless to balance his career as a senior consultant with involvement in the IGA and NZGA, whose primary purpose is education. Lawless’ quiet manner belies his industry profile. He was instrumental in setting up the IGA’s Western Pacific Regional Branch to facilitate funding and information sharing within the region, both of which keep him busy even without his work for an understanding SKM. “Geothermal is a very, very international field. The last time we counted, there were 32 nationalities in this [Auckland] office of 300 people.” Just over 10 percent of New Zealand power is geothermal, a sustainable resource ripe for development. Yet, Lawless says, the government has effectively held it back. He particularly regrets the collapse of the Geothermal Institute at Auckland University. “When it was set up, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs put a significant amount of money into scholarships to bring people here, and it went very well for 25 years. It was the world’s only postgraduate geothermal school. I think there were something like 750 international graduates, and that’s just such a tremendous marketing tool for New Zealand industry. The government withdrew its funding. “The lack of funding initiated the demise of the school and the void was largely taken up by Iceland – an aggressive promoter globally of its geothermal expertise.” The Institute has started up again, without government support, with at least two New Zealand power companies sponsoring scholarships, but the Institute finds it hard to attract people from developing countries without access to more scholarships. Government understanding and patronage of the geothermal sector is common overseas. “We recently held the World Geothermal Congress in Bali, and were strongly supported by the Indonesian Government, it is regrettable that our efforts to encourage the New Zealand government to participate on the honorary committee did not eventuate,” he says, despite numerous attempts to persuade it. “We were, however appreciative of the support of the New Zealand embassy in Jakarta, and the Ambassador’s presence. In contrast, Iceland sent its president for most of the duration of the congress and, through the UNU, provided a hundred fellowships for people from developing countries to attend.” New Zealand’s contribution to amounted to two scholarships from SKM and two from the NZGA. There is a renewed interest globally in geothermal development and Australia is actively engaging with exploration of lower temperature resources with a high level of government support. Lawless is concerned New Zealand doesn’t get the full benefits of geothermal development because of resource allocation mechanisms. “A great number of companies have started up in Australia who can raise seed funding for exploratory projects much more readily than a company can here. At least five of them have come to us and said, ‘what have you got in New Zealand?’ We’ve said, ‘these are the resources available’, and they have been impressed, but have not taken it further because of the regulatory environment and lack of exclusive tenure.” He says the problem is mainly due to the way geothermal energy allocation is handled under the Resource Management Act. Lawless says lack of access to data has also been detrimental. A full inventory of geothermal resources is impossible because there is no obligation for exploring companies to file data unless a resource consent is granted for extraction, so much information is lost. He is scathing of the fact that data collected with public money by the DSIR is now available only on a commercial basis by the CRIs. “Even just getting hold of information can be difficult. I know of one company that bought a well that was drilled by the Crown and is using it for commercial production, but still can’t get a sign-off from Treasury for the data that goes with the well. “With wells these days costing at least $6 million each to drill, a company can easily spend $20 million demonstrating that a resource can be developed in a sustainable way but gets no guaranteed right of access to it. Now that’s a very big ask for a company coming in from outside.” Lawless says it would be more logical to apply an exploration licence regime as we do in minerals, or oil and gas, and which in many countries is applied to geothermal. “One way to do that would be to bring geothermal under legislation, like the oil and gas legislation, though I can imagine that would be a major political task. However there’s nothing to actually stop us applying the same regime under the RMA if the regional councils were mandated to do that. “When there was a debate on this five years ago, Environment Waikato, which controls 80 percent of the country’s resources, was in favour of this approach. But the Ministry of Energy hasn’t supported it.” Now his sights are set on the World Geothermal Congress in Melbourne in 2015, which he was instrumental in getting to Australasia. Yes, it will mean more air miles for this traveler, but the skills-sharing is life blood for his industry. This conference offers the New Zealand Government a ‘once in a generation’ opportunity to promote our geothermal expertise, Lawless adds.
Energy NZ Vol.4 No.4 July-August 2010 |
Previous president of the Geothermal Association (NZGA), board member of the International Geothermal Association (IGA), chairman of its Western Pacific Regional Branch, and Geothermal Resources Practice Leader at SKM, it is not suprising that Jim Lawless (pictured) talks passionately about geothermal energy.