Final program released for IGC Invest Geothermal – 28 March 2019

ThinkGeoEnergy and Enerchange have now released the final program for the upcoming IGC Invest Geothermal Finance & Investment Forum. The event will take place in less than a week on 28 March 2019.

Featuring an interesting set of speakers from a great variety of players in the industry and from around the world.

Program – 28 March 2019

8:00 – 8:45 Welcome at the Breakfast Session

Chair: Dr. Jochen Schneider, Enerchange GmbH & Co. KG

• Welcome – Dr. Jochen Schneider, Enerchange
• Overview on global geothermal energy development – Alexander Richter, IGA
• Regulatory and financial pitfalls for geothermal projects – Kai Imolauer, Rödl & Partner

9:00 – 10:30 Session I Investing into Early Geothermal Development-  The Equity Side
The early stage of geothermal project development is the most critical phase, with high risks and high investment. Experts from Geothermal Developers and will speak about their experience and discuss risk management and financing of geothermal projects.

Chair: Torsten Rosenboom, Watson Farley & Williams LLP

• Structuring Geothermal in Indonesia, Ali Mundakir, President Director, Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE)
• Geothermal Development in Turkey, Ali Kindap, General Manager, Zorlu Energy
• Perspective on Geothermal from a Developer of Renewable Energies, Radu Gruescu, Associated Partner, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, Denmark
• First-Time Investment in Geothermal Energy, Gregor Gruber, Group CEO, IKAV/ ecoprime

11:00 – 12:30 Session II – Modelling Geothermal Financing & Program Support
Over the past years, geothermal development financing has seen various models being developed. Within this session some of these models  re introduced and the role of funding programs and incentives discussed by Investors, Donors and Developers.

Chair: Thomas Garabetian, EGEC

• De-Risking Geothermal Development – The Case for Latin America, Arndt Wierheim, KFW Bankengruppe
• The reasons behind the Mexican Geothermal Financing Program, current status and perspective, Michelle Ramirez (formerly SENER)
• OPIC, Geothermal, and the New Development Finance Corporation, Stephen Morel, OPIC
• Overview of the financing of geothermal projects in Latin-America, Christiaan Gischler, Inter-American Development Bank

14:00 – 15:30 Session III – Development Approaches to improve Project & Financial Success
Project developers are faced with significant challenges obtaining affordable capital, because investors (debt or equity) are uncomfortable with the risk and the price for external capital is too high for the project to be viable. With larger scaled projects, based on phased PPAs or modular plant developments, i.e. using well head generators, solutions will be introduced and discussed with power plant engineers, developers, operators and investors.

Chair: Amanda Lonsdale, former advisor EAGER & Power Africa

• Making Geothermal Cost Competitive in a Dynamic Electricity Market, Antonie de Wilde, North Tech Energy
• Financing of the United Downs Deep Geothermal Power Project, Cornwall/UK, Ryan Law, Geothermal Engineering Ltd.
• ORC 2.0 – cost efficient net & gross electricity generation, Wolfgang Brand, CFO, Orcan Energy
• Securing financial support for an unproven geothermal technology – showcase from the Netherlands, Robert Winslow, VP Business Development, EAVOR Technologies

16:00 – 17:30 Session IV – Appetite for Heat – Diversifying the Investment
Electricity generation has been the most prominent target of geothermal project development, however further opportunities for geothermal energy utilisation exist to make projects more profitable. To use geothermal heat directly is an obvious choice, but with the summer periods a gap exists in the business case. Another – upcoming topic is the extraction of minerals from geothermal brines. The session will discuss the multiple usage of geothermal energy.

Chair: Manon Stover,

• Boosting sustainability of greenhouse farming by geothermal energy, Ivan Das, Rabobank
• Mining for Lithium in Geothermal Brines, Randy Keller, MGX Minerals
• Geothermal for heat production, the French experience, Constant Magon, Storengy
• Powering a Sustainable Special Export Zone in Kenya using Geothermal Energy, Heil Helling, Oserian Development Company

17:30 – 18:30 Round Up Discussion
With the various features of geothermal energy and the possibilities to finance introduced during the day, this discussion round will draw conclusions on financing geothermal development and the instruments to accelerate project development and technological advancements.

Chair: Alexander Richter, IGA

• Amanda Lonsdale, former advisor to EAGER & Power Africa
• Thomas Garabetian, EGEC
• Torsten Rosenboom, Watson Farley & Williams LLP
• Manon Stover

For details and registration click here.