By Paul Gorman
The world’s hunger for energy will only keep growing, International Geothermal Association Chief Executive Marit Brommer said.
Speaking about the two-year strategic partnership between Seequent, The Bentley Subsurface Company, and the association, she said geothermal’s time was here. The world was becoming increasingly receptive of it and aware of its benefits.
‘Our time has come, our time is now, the momentum is different.’
However, the industry is ‘fragmented’, she said.
‘What that means is its messaging is fragmented as well. It is our collective role to elevate the message to one coherent … even standardised way of how we speak about geothermal, how it contributes to achieving either the energy security goals or the sustainable development goals in one coherent way.’
Seequent Segment Director, Energy, Jeremy O’Brien said oil and gas technologies were now being used to make geothermal available where it previously hadn’t been.
The discrete disciplines around geothermal operations were also breaking down.
‘Geology, power-plant operations and reservoir engineering – we’re starting to see that all come together. At Seequent we are really pushing that by having fully coupled models that include all of the aspects of geothermal systems.’
Along with mitigating against climate change, the big challenge now was energy security.
‘Energy security is front and centre. Where you have geothermal you have security, because it’s always available, 24-7, whether using it for heating or cooling or power.
‘It creates a lot of jobs. It creates an economy around it. Other renewables don’t have the same scale. Solar and wind, although they’re great, they don’t create this ecosystem of society around them.’