Hollis Chin, VP Marketing, GreenFire Energy
The geothermal industry used to be a lonely place. Outside the industry, few people cared about the potential of earth’s abundant, continuous, renewable resource. We invited new people to our conferences, but they didn’t come. Now all that has changed. With the Geothermal Rising Conference, Pivot2021, GEOLAC, the World Geothermal Congress 2020+1, and more, geothermal is now like a big dinner party. People are flowing in with food and wine. With all the bright minds and innovative companies, geothermal has momentum.
Our View of the Industry
The geothermal dinner party was in full swing at the Geothermal Rising Conference on October 3-6, live and online in San Diego, CA, USA. Many new attendees were from the oil & gas industry and they were welcomed with outstretched arms. The breadth of session topics showed how the industry has advanced in its scope and reach: closed-loop technology, decarbonizing existing oil & gas fields, direct use of geothermal, EGS technology, drilling advancements, machine learning, and others.
GreenFire Energy’s Joseph Scherer, CEO, presented in two Closed Loop Geothermal sessions and Andrew Van Horn, Ph.D., Director of Applied Research, presented on The Benefits of Geothermal Power, Evolution of the U.S. Electricity Grid, and the Need for Geothermal Research. Two new research papers were released and are available from the Research page of the GreenFire Energy website.
- Closed-Loop Geothermal in Steam Dominated Reservoirs
- The Benefits of Geothermal Power, Evolution of the U.S. Electricity Grid, and the Need for Geothermal Research
Jamie C. Beard, Esq., Executive Director, GEO, gave an inspirational TED Talk on The Untapped Energy Source that Could Power the Planet. Jamie envisions the alliance of the geothermal and the oil & gas industries. “If we build the right collaborations and unite behind a shared vision, we solve energy in the coming years.” Watch the video.
The Japanese government laid out a roadmap to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 which includes doubling renewables by 2030. The plan is to have renewables accounting for 36-38% of total power generation in fiscal 2030. Read the article (requires free registration to The Japan Times).
The planned IPO of the Indonesia Geothermal Energy, a merger of PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy, PT PLN Gas & Geothermal, and PT Geo Dipa Energi is still on track. Read Updates Given on Planned IPO for Geothermal Holding Company in Indonesia.
Steel manufacturer Chioson Development Corp. has signed a geothermal power purchase agreement with EDC (GreenFire Energy customer) to cut its carbon footprint. Read the article.
Geothermal energy from the Larderello Geothermal Energy plant in Italy, the world’s first geothermal power plant, will be used to set up green data centers in the province of Pisa in Tuscany. Italian Geoveda Srl will build the green data centers designed to use geothermal for cooling and power.
Events
SPE Virtual Workshop: Bridging the Gap Between Geothermal and Oil & Gas
December 1-3, 2021
Virtual
Joseph Scherer, CEO, will be on this panel:
Dec 2nd
Closed-Loop Geothermal
GreenFire Energy Updates
Joseph Scherer presented Closed-Loop Geothermal in Steam and 2-Phase Dominated Reservoirs at the 2nd Philippine International Geothermal Conference on October 26th. GreenFire Energy was a Gold sponsor of the conference.
Andrew Van Horn, Ph.D., participated in the World Geothermal Congress, WGC2020+1 roundtable, Be part of the solution #industryroundtable on October 26th.
Joseph Scherer participated in the 8th Geothermal Congress for Latin America and the Caribbean (GEOLAC 2021) Closed-Loop Panel, September 8-10th.
We have a job posting for a Director of Mechanical Engineering. See the job description on our website. We are hiring so keep checking back.