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IGC 2014 to showcase success and perspective for geothermal risk mitigation

IGC 2014 to showcase success and perspective for geothermal risk mitigation Keynote presentation at the IGC 2011, Freiburg/ Germany (source: Enerchange)
Alexander Richter 1 May 2014

The 10th International Geothermal Conference in Freiburg, Germany will take place this year May 14-15, 2014. Offering a wide variety of topics with a strong focus on low enthalpy it has established itself as the most important geothermal event in Middle Europe.

The International Geothermal Conference is one of the most important meetings on Low Enthaply Geothermal Energy in Europe.

With 50 speakers from Europe, Africa and the USA the conference offers a wide variety of topics: Upscaling of Geothermal Projects, Risk Mitigation, successful heat utilization, Public Relations, the renovation go the German Renewable Sources Act and many more. A diversified social program offers a great opportunity for networking. Up to 150 participants from a dozen countries worldwide have so far registered for the event that will take place this year for the 10th time.

The International Geothermal Conference (IGC 2014) in Freiburg, Germany will take place May 14th to May 15th. The regular registration ends in a few days on May 5th. This year’s Gold Sponsor is one of the biggest German utilities, EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg.

The first day, May 14th, starts with an Intensive Course by Prof. Dr. Hans Machel of the University of Alberta, on carbonate reservoirs and the related diagenetic processes and a practical Workshop on the thermal water loop at the power plant in Soultz-sous-Forêts in France. Here, deeper insights in the thermal water loop are given with respect to scalings and corrosion, as the plant is at the moment out of service.

In the afternoon there will be three additional workshops dealing with Direct Marketing of Geothermal Electricity, Public Relations and Experiences in International Projects. Especially the workshop about International Projects offers very interesting presentations. Here, two Hungarian heat projects are introduced by Janós Nagygál and the CEO of Pannergy, Peter Tóth.

Prof. Dr. Guelden Goekcen from the Izmir Institute of Technology gives an overview about the geothermal development in Turkey and Philippe Niyongabo, the Head of Energy Division of the African Union introduces the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility in Africa. Finally there are Julio Garcia from Calpine and Roger Henneberg from GeothermEx with two very interesting presentations. Garcia will highlight the world’s largest geothermal field, The Geysers geothermal field in California. Here he will share the experiences about more than 350 wells and 850 MW electricity producing facilities. Henneberger will introduce the largest single financed geothermal project with 300 MW in Sarulla in Indonesia.

The Congress on the next day starts with keynotes about the Geothermal development in Europe by Luca Angelino (EGEC), Cornelia Viertl from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy introduces the current status of the Renewable Energy Sources Act and Christoph Brunner from the EnBW Energie-Baden-Württemberg speaks about the Challenges for Deep Geothermal Energy in the Future Energy Market.

The following discussion forums take care on the amendment of the Renewable Energy Sources Act and on Upscaling of Geothermal Projects, including multilateral wells, reservoir-management and the pre-conditions for upscaling. The speakers of these Forums are Lutz Stahl from BE Geothermal and Hartmut Gassner from Gassner, Groth, Siederer & Coll as well as Dr. Jörg Reichert from the Deutsche Rohstoff, Dr. Christian Pletl from SWM Services, Dr. Wolfgang Bauer from 360 plus, Julio Garcia from Calpine, Roger Henneberg from GeothermEx.

The afternoon starts with two keynotes about the geothermal development in France and Switzerland by Christian Oeser from the French Ministère de l’Ecologie, du Développement Durable et de l’Energie and Dr. Rudolf Minder from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. Two further Forums on the Success of Geothermal Heat Utilization and Risk Mitigation Schemes in Europe give a round up of the Congress Day.

The third day of the International Geothermal Conference focusses the geothermal development in the Upper Rhine Valley. On the one hand there is field trip to the geothermal power plant in Insheim on the other hand the is the third Upper Rhine Forum with presentations and a field trip to the geothermal heat plant in Riehen, Switzerland. Within this forum the current state of the development in the Upper Rhine Valley is documented with several presentations about projects in France Germany and Switzerland. The Upper Rhine Forum is organised by TRION in cooperation with Enerchange.

Please visit for registration to the IGC 2014 the website of the conference www.geothermiekonferenz.de/en. For any further questions contact Enerchange, agentur@enerchange.de.