Sydney, Nov 22, 2007 (ABN Newswire) - KUTh Energy Limited (ASX: KEN) welcomes the announcement from the federal government of continuing support for geothermal energy development in Australia, including specific funding to assist KUTh Energy to accelerate its geothermal exploration program in Tasmania. As part of its policy A climate resilient future: A clean energy plan for Australia, the government has announced provision for up to $5 million for KUTh on a dollar-for-dollar basis for geothermal mapping and data acquisition.

"Geothermal energy has the potential to produce large quantities of emission free, renewable and sustainable energy, but it needs the encouragement of government to accelerate exploration and development. We welcome both the Coalition and Labor's initiatives in support of the development of geothermal energy and today we especially welcome the government's specific recognition of the potential of KUTh in Tasmania." KUTh's General Manager, Malcolm Ward, said today.

KUTh Energy has one of Australia's largest geothermal tenements and offers enhanced commerciality given the presence of high voltage transmission lines passing through the tenement in several locations, as well as its proximity to the Basslink interconnector to the Australian mainland. This means that with appropriate access agreements, a geothermal power source within KUTh's tenement could access the grid with relatively little additional infrastructure cost, unlike some of the remote Australian projects.

"While we will be thoroughly exploring our tenement for its geothermal potential, government support will allow us to accelerate our exploration program so south-eastern Australia may benefit from geothermal energy much faster than otherwise.

"KUTh Energy Limited has a strong technical team and the geology in Tasmania is very favourable for 'hot rocks' geothermal energy. We are working very hard to establish the presence of viable geothermal resources on our tenement and we welcome the government announcement." Mr Ward said.