From the Geothermal Resources Council
Biographical Info
Mr. Dickey has a B.S. in Architectural Engineering from Kansas State University and brings 40 years of experience in power generation development. Currently an independent consultant, Mr. Dickey spent the last ten years of his career at TAS Energy, Inc. and UTC Power, two companies that specialized in the development, sale, and installation of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) power equipment in the geothermal industry. Prior to these, Mr. Dickey worked for a number of well-known companies and their power engineering divisions. Specific to GreenFire Energy’s technology development, Mr. Dickey has specific experience in the design of supercritical sCO2 power generating systems, including Rankine Cycle power equipment, sCO2 turbines, and sCO2 expanders.
Mr. Dickey served on the Board of Directors for the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) from 2008-2014 and has been a presenter at numerous GEA, GRC, Power-Gen, GeoPower International, and SMU Oil & Gas conferences over the last ten years. Presentation topics and specific areas of DOE-funded studies include: low temperature geothermal power generation; advanced supercritical ORC power systems; axial expanders for low-grade heat; high efficiency expanders; geothermal resource sustainability; and air-cooled combined-cycle hybrids.
Biographical Info
Brian Higgins graduated from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and then received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, both in Mechanical Engineering. He then studied fundamental flame chemistry at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) at École Centrale Paris. Following this, he researched diesel spray phenomena at the Combustion Research Facility at the Sandia National Laboratory. As an assistant professor at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, he directed the Engines Laboratory and worked on hybrid vehicle design and emerging engine technologies.
Eventually leaving academia, Brian took a VP of Technology position at Mobotec, leading the design of more than $200M of NOx and SO2 reduction equipment for coal-fired boilers throughout the US, China, and Poland. Subsequently, as CTO for EnviroCare he has designed scrubbers, spray towers, mercury adsorbers, and wet electrostatic precipitators. At GreenFire Energy, he is involved with producing the process and mechanical design of our novel technology. Brian has published numerous technical papers and delivered too many conference presentations to count.
Biographical Info
As the former Director of Geothermal Technologies Program for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in Washington D.C. (2002-2006), Dr. Leland “Roy” Mink’s technical expertise is in geology, hydrogeology, and geothermal resource characterization. Dr. Mink began his career as a hydro-geologist with the Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology (1972-76) and was associate professor of hydrogeology at Boise State University. Dr. Mink also served as research geo-hydrologist for US Environmental Protection Agency in Las Vegas (1976-77) and was a geothermal energy project manager for Department of Energy in Washington, DC and Idaho Falls (1977-80). He worked as a hydrology project engineer for Morrison-Knudson in Boise (1980-89). For more than ten years (1989-2001), he directed the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute at the University of Idaho.
Dr. Mink then spent several years in the DOE and maintains close contacts there to this day. He has also served as technical advisor to Nevada Energy and sits on the board of directors for U.S. Geothermal Inc. He has been a member of the National Science Academy Earth Resource committee and is currently on the board of directors for Geothermal Resources Council. He has held positions of research faculty with Southern Methodist University and University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
Currently, Dr. Mink resides in Idaho and is the principal with Mink GeoHydro Inc., consulting in water and geothermal energy. He earned a B.S. in math and science from Idaho State University and an M.S. in hydrology and Ph.D. in geology from the University of Idaho.
Biographical Info
Dr. Daniel Moos is an expert in geomechanics and reservoir description with more than 30 years of experience in academia and industry, focused on measuring and understanding the effects of the in-situ stresses on upstream operations in oil and gas, geothermal, and mining exploration and development. He has published more than 100 papers and holds patents in the areas of rock physics, geophysics, stress determination, wellbore imaging, wellbore stability, and fracture stimulation. He was a founding member of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Borehole Research Group, and a 10-year participant in Stanford University’s SRB Consortium prior to co-founding GeoMechanics International which developed geomechanics software and delivered consulting and training to industry clients.
He joined Baker Hughes as part of GMI’s acquisition in 2008, and served as GMI Chief Scientist prior to promotion to Technology Fellow in 2011, and in 2012 founded Baker’s Palo Alto Innovation Center serving as its Director and then Chief Scientist. He recently resigned his position at Baker Hughes to focus on other activities. Dr. Moos received his PhD in geophysics from Stanford University, and BS in geology from Cornell University. He was elected an Honorary Member of the SPE in 2016.
Biographical Info
Dr. Scott Paterson received a B.S. in Geology from the University of Washington and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Cruz. After completing a two-year Postdoc at Macquarie University, Australia and the University of California, Santa Cruz, he has been a professor in the Earth Sciences Department, University of Southern California for the past 27 years.
Originally trained as a structural geologist specializing in strain analyses, Dr. Paterson has worked extensively on the behavior of crust in the plastic zone at and below the brittle-plastic transition. He also works extensively on magmatic systems in continental margin arcs, particularly on the use of magmatic structures to unravel the temporal evolution of coupled magmatic-ductile host rock systems. His research group is presently examining the changing fluid regimes across the brittle plastic transition. He has authored and coauthored over 150 publications and received over 20 grants from the National Science Foundation.
Biographical Info
Mr. Pilko is a seasoned executive with 42 years in the upstream oil and gas industry in oilfield services, operations, technology, management, and consulting. As the Strategic Relationships Director for Blade Energy Partners, Bob leads advanced projects with super major operators (BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Total), international operators (BHP, Lukoil, Repsol), North American operators (Devon, Husky, Suncor), and research organizations. Mr. Pilko has managed many projects including: drilling to the earth’s mantle; developing deepwater technologies for safety and well integrity; designing high pressure, high temperature wells; developing geothermal deep wells; and addressing natural gas storage issues. Bob served as the U.S. General Manager for Precision Drilling’s Northland affiliate, Production Services Coordinator for Paris-based Geoservices, Executive VP for Stric-Lan Companies Corporation, and held roles at Schlumberger.
Mr. Pilko is actively involved in industry organizations including the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN), American Petroleum Institute (API), American Association of Drilling Engineers (AADE), Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC). He has presented at the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), SMU Geothermal Laboratory, EUCI, and the Energy Utility and Environment Conference.
He earned a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an M.B.A. from Texas Southern University, and a J.D. from South Texas College of Law.
Biographical Info
Dr. Sabin is an influential technical and policy expert in the geothermal industry. Dr. Sabin serves on the Board of Directors of the International Geothermal Association (IGA) and serves on the finance committee. He is the former President of Geothermal Rising (formerly the Geothermal Resources Council) which is the world’s oldest and largest geothermal industry association. There he intensified the efforts to champion geothermal to meet global energy needs and raised the awareness of the organization through its rebranding.
Dr. Sabin led a large field trip of geothermal professionals to visit the GreenFire Energy demonstration at the Coso Geothermal Field in Coso, CA, in 2019. Dr. Sabin earned his Ph.D. at the Colorado School of Mines, a MSc at the University of Pittsburgh, and a BS at the University of Maryland in geology.
Biographical Info
Marc Stuart is the Founding Managing Partner, Allotrope Partners, an internationally focused clean energy advisory firm with expertise in project development, public-private initiatives, renewable energy credits, and strategic investment in clean energy projects. The firm has deep expertise in Southeast Asia and is engaged in renewable energy deployment in the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam.
Marc is a recognized leader in emissions credit trading, cleantech investing, and climate policy. He was the co-founder of EcoSecurities and led the teams that created emissions reduction credits, emissions and project finance transactional capacity, and the first green certificate transaction for developing and industrial countries. Marc has been a member of numerous boards in the environmental markets space, including Verra (the Verified Carbon Standard), Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics, the International Emissions Trading Association, The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, and served for several years as a private sector observer to the World Bank’s Clean Technology Fund. He is an author and frequent speaker on emissions trading, low carbon finance, and cleantech.
Marc holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.Sc. from The London School of Economics and Political Science, and ABD in political economy and environmental policy at the Claremont Graduate University.
Biographical Info
Dr. Andy Van Horn provides expertise and insight into energy and environmental markets, technologies and regulations. For over thirty-five years he has assisted utilities, developers of new technologies, research institutes, government agencies and market participants by scrutinizing market economics, regulatory rules, technology costs and performance, and contracts in electricity, emissions and fuels markets. From 2007-2014, his firm served as Independent Evaluators of electricity and natural gas procurements and contracts for major California electric utilities, facilitating Requests for Offers, evaluating bids and reviewing contract terms for conventional, renewable, demand-side, and combined heat-and-power resources.
Earlier, while consulting to the U.S. EPA and the Electric Power Research Institute, he led national studies of energy, fuels and environmental markets and policies, including New Source Performance Standards, New Source Review, emission fees, cap-and-trade, technology penetration and the coordination of U.S. energy and environmental policy to 2050. He recently carried out comprehensive studies of California’s AB 32 rules for GHG reduction. He applies economic, financial, production cost, power flow and engineering models to integrate policy development, data analysis, market fundamentals, and scenario design.
Andy’s experience regarding electricity market operations, prices, technologies, regulations and contracts will help evaluate investment, technology and business decisions, including power purchase agreements. He earned a B.S. from Harvey Mudd College and a Ph.D. in physics from UC Berkeley.