News

Turkey hosting World Bank GeoFund Workshop

Alexander Richter 16 Feb 2009

Turkey is hosting the "GeoFund Geothermal Workshop" in Istanbul. The workshop will focus "on attracting investor attention in geothermal energy in Europe and Central Asia, as part of the World Bank's Geothermal Energy Development Program, or GeoFund.2

Starting today, Turkey is hosting the “GeoFund Geothermal Workshop” in Istanbul for the next 4 days. As reported by the Turkish national paper Hurriyet, the workshop will focus “on attracting investor attention in geothermal energy in Europe and Central Asia, as part of the World Bank’s Geothermal Energy Development Program, or GeoFund.”

The workshop is organized by “World Bank Partnership International, which provides regulatory, institutional, technical and financial advice to clients on infrastructure investment projects.” The organization’s president Tracy Mathieu said the workshop aimed to contribute to the development of geothermal projects in Turkey, as well as centralizing the country as a model for the region by bringing government officials and international investors together.

“Through the Geothermal Workshop our goal is to present attendees with methods to develop a project, carry out financial analysis and economic modeling, prepare winning proposals to the GeoFund for explorations and drilling and secure international financial resources,” Mathieu said.

“If Turkish companies worked with international partners it would be a lot easier to access funding for their renewable energy projects. The workshop is fully oriented to promote Turkey’s potential in geothermal energy and to attract investors,” she said.

The GeoFund is an umbrella program to facilitate individual geothermal projects in the region, Mathieu said. “The World Bank’s GeoFund Geothermal Workshop’s goal is to systematically promote the use of geothermal energy in the region by removing barriers to the development of geothermal renewable energy, leading to greater use and increase in demand for, and supply of, geothermal energy projects,” she said.”

This conference comes at a difficult time for developers as they are chasing financing for their projects internationally and most investors look at later stage projects with cash flow in sight, while the GeoFund provides help for early stage projects. So the gap between the two stages still exists.

Source: Turkish Hurriyet