Report from the 21st Annual Congress of the Mexican Geothermal Association
Field trip at Los Azufres, Mexico, 2013 (source: Mexican Geothermal Association)
Alexander Richter
4 Nov 2013
The 21st Annual Congress of the Mexican Geothermal Association (AGM) successfully took place October 24-26, 2013 in Morelia City, Mexico. There was a pre-congress workshop and following the event a field trip to the construction site of the Las Azufres geothermal plant took place.
The 21st Annual Congress of the Mexican Geothermal Association (AGM) took place October 24-26, 2013 in Morelia City, Mexico. Participants of the congress came from the geothermal division (GPG) of the CFE (Comisión Federal de Electricidad), the geothermal area of the Electric Research Institute (IIE: Instituto de Investigaciones Eléctricas), private companies as Grupo ENAL, Grupo Dragón, Nalco, Comesa, Weatherford, Powerchem, Schlumberger, Mexxus and Energía Latina, as well as researchers, teachers and students of the Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolás de Hidalgo, UNAM, IPN, CICESE and the Technological University of Morelia, and a group of several CFE’s former employees, currently retired. Seventeen students attended the congress, representing more than one-fifth of the total.
During the two-day conference were presented five invited talks and 21 technical papers. The invited lectures covered issues as public policies and incentives to promote investment in geothermal projects, the program and prospects of the new Mexican Center for Geothermal Energy Innovation (CEMIE-Geo: Centro Mexicano de Innovación en Energía Geotérmica) whose creation would publicly announced a few days later, the IIE’s vision and its geothermal program, and a hybrid solar-geothermal project that currently is being deployed near Morelia City as a pilot plant. Technical papers addressed issues on geology and geothermal exploration, scaling of wells, drilling and assessment of wells, reinjection, reservoir management and optimization, acid stimulation, modeling and simulation of geothermal reservoirs and binary-cycle power plants, evidence of acidic fluids, and barriers and opportunities for geothermal energy in the Andean countries.
Prior to the congress an 8-hours workshop on Geochemical and Isotopic Techniques in Geothermal Exploration was held, sponsored by the International Geothermal Association (IGA), from which the AGM is an affiliated association. The course was taught by José Luis Quijano and Alfredo Mañón, board members of the AGM, supported by Alma Cristina Vázquez-Duarte from Grupo ENAL and by Luis C.A. Gutiérrez-Negrín, the AGM’s president. The workshop was attended by over 20 participants, mostly students and young professionals, but there were also some professionals with extensive experience in other fields of geothermal energy willing to learn about fluid geochemistry and isotopy.
The congress ended on October 26 with a field-trip to the nearby geothermal field of Los Azufres, where participants visited the place where a new 50-MW geothermal power plant is currently under construction (Los Azufres III, phase I, project) and had the opportunity to visit the largest geothermal unit operating in this field, which is Unit 7 with 50 MW of installed capacity. Visitors received deep explanations about both plants by the CFE personnel.
At the opening session of the congress, on Thursday October 24, the AGM’s president read salutations from Roland Horne and Juliet Newson, the current and elected IGA’s president, respectively, at that moment. At the end of the same day the AGM delivered in public session the 2013 Pathé Award, and one special post-mortem recognition to Dr. Alfredo Mainieri Protti, reputed as the father of geothermal energy in Costa Rica and passed away last January. The 2013 Pathé Award was given to the widow, Magdalena Ortiz, and eldest son of Alejandro Oropeza Quiroz, a civil engineer who worked at the GPG devoting many years to build geothermal power plants in various Mexican fields like Cerro Prieto and Los Azufres. The special acknowledgement that the AGM decided to make to the trajectory of Dr. Mainieri and his key role in the development of geothermal energy in Costa Rica and, indirectly, that of Latin America, was received by his widow, Elizabeth Mora, and his eldest son.
