The Latin America Geothermal Systems Workshop 2026 brought together representatives from government, industry and academia in Mexico City to discuss technologies and new models for geothermal energy use in Mexico and Latin America.
The meeting, organized by the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), focused on the development of non-traditional geothermal energy, including harnessing heat in existing oil fields and wells, as well as direct uses, recovery of critical minerals, and new technologies. This is the first workshop hosted by the AAPG to focus exclusively on the potential of advanced and unconventional geothermal systems in Latin America.
One of the cases presented was the conversion of inactive oil wells for geothermal power generation, an initiative involving the Mexican Petroleum Institute (IMP), Pemex, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and the National Institute of Electricity and Clean Energy (INEEL). The analysis of 187 fields identified 78 with temperatures of 90 °C or higher and 39 onshore fields with high viability for well conversion.
Based on further technical evaluation, five wells with bottomhole temperatures exceeding 140 °C were identified as candidates for testing power generation using Organic Rankine Cycle technology. This concept aims to convert inactive wells into closed-cycle coaxial heat exchangers to recover heat from the subsurface and generate electricity.
The discussions also covered heat pumps, binary cycles, hot rock systems, industrial heat recovery, and critical minerals, reflecting a vision of geothermal energy that goes beyond conventional electricity generation.
“The energy transition is not about abandoning our history, it’s about transforming it. It’s about using our technical knowledge and our oil infrastructure to turn them into valuable new assets,” said Dr. Elizabeth Mar Juárez, Director General of the IMP.
The workshop concluded by highlighting the need to combine regulation, appropriate resource selection, competitive technologies and energy demand, along with financing mechanisms and exploration risk management, to bring opportunities from research to commercially viable geothermal projects.
Source: Gobierno de Mexico via our Spanish language platform PiensaGeotermia
