How a Potential Geothermal Project Becomes Reality: The Enex Way

Abstract

Geothermal project developers each have their own method of screening project leads and developing projects. This can often be confusing for project owners that present leads to developers at distinct stages of project realization. Many screening methods and development steps are known and commonly used in the field. Others are particular to specific developers and are here referred to as in-house methods. Often, in-house variations on more common business methods are used as well. Furthermore, software used for development can have distinct functions and can be developed in-house or be commercially available or a combination of the two. This paper presents an attempt to describe the development process and its main steps with the aim of improving the communication between developers and project owners and speeding the process to a successful project. Enex, a geothermal developer, is interested in speeding up the development of geothermal projects in the future and utilize for that task known business procedures mixed with old truths from the geothermal field. The development process described in this article has evolved within Enex for three years and is under constant review.