By Colleen O’Hanlon, Corporate Content Lead
Seequent Chief Executive Officer Graham Grant told the World Geothermal Congress (WGC) that the future of geothermal energy will be unlocked not just by ambition, but by confidence.
Grant delivered a keynote at the global event in Calgary, Canada, highlighting how the world’s growing hunger for clean, reliable, and always-on power is shifting the context for the geothermal industry.
‘This is no longer a conversation about niche energy or just clean energy’, he told the audience. ‘This is a question at the level of country about how our energy systems can support the increasing need for electrification, for industrial infrastructure, and for digital development.’
While noting that capital and demand are already available, Grant pointed out that many projects are still stalling. The delay, he explained, is not due to a lack of need or ambition, but rather a lack of clear visibility into the subsurface.
Seequent Chief Executive Officer Graham Grant told delegates at the World Geothermal Congress in Calgary that the world’s growing hunger for clean, reliable, and always-on power is shifting the context for the geothermal industry.
Source: Seequent
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The confidence to scale
Grant said he believed the next phase for geothermal would be defined by confidence.
‘And that’s confidence to invest, confidence to drill and confidence to scale. But confidence for governments and confidence for investors, where the money comes from, and the confidence of buyers of power.’
This challenge is exactly where Seequent operates. By helping the industry make better decisions earlier – when uncertainty is at its highest and consequences matter the most – Seequent’s technology now supports more than 60 per cent of global geothermal power generation.
‘That is not a technology point’, he said. ‘It is a confidence point.’
Seequent Chief Executive Graham Grant delivered a keynote speech at the World Geothermal Congress in Calgary.
Source: Seequent
Speed, precision, and visibility
During the keynote, Grant highlighted several next-generation projects already putting this confidence into action. He pointed to Fervo Energy as an example of projects moving at rapid speed, Contact Energy’s Tauhara project in New Zealand for demonstrating precision at grid scale, and the Canadian Thermal Map for showcasing what becomes possible when a country achieves subsurface visibility at a national level.
‘One is about speed. One is about precision. One is about visibility’, Grant said. ‘But they all point to the same thing: confidence unlocks investment, investment unlocks projects, projects unlock scale.’
Grant highlighted several initiatives which were leading the way in geothermal, including Fervo Energy’s Cape Station project in Utah (above).
Source: Fervo Energy
Telling a different story
Grant closed his keynote by outlining what it will take to help the rest of the world believe in geothermal enough to invest, permit, and partner. He called for better cooperation between industry, government, and research, as well as better data at both the project and national scales.
Crucially, he urged the industry to start telling the geothermal story differently.
‘Geothermal is no longer about some niche interesting clean alternative, but it is actually fundamental baseline infrastructure upon which countries can build.’
‘The future is not going to be unlocked by ambition, which we have a lot of, it will be unlocked by confidence, and that starts in the subsurface.’
The solution to powering our future, Grant reminded the audience, is already beneath our feet.