Building Technical and Human Capacity in Emerging Geothermal Countries: Introducing a U.S. Initiative

Abstract

Under a cooperative agreement with the University of Nevada, Reno, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Energy Resources launched the Geothermal Development Initiative (GEODE) in 2017 under its Power Sector Program, which aims to provide a wide range of technical and advisory support to create solvent, reliable, transparent, and sustainable power sectors in countries around the world. Geothermal energy is an emerging sector in many countries globally, and has the potential to contribute to stable, clean, and baseload renewable energy electricity generation. The goal of GEODE is to harness that potential by assisting countries with overcoming barriers to geothermal resource development, including supporting the use of new and emerging technologies for managing exploratory risk, as well as providing capacity-building for host governments to effectively manage resource and project development. GEODE’s objectives include: (1) increasing the capacity of foreign governments to develop their geothermal resources by building internal expertise to manage the unique technical, regulatory, financial, and environmental issues associated with geothermal resource development and to instill best practices to address those issues; and (2) deploying innovative methods to help identify and develop blind geothermal resources (i.e., an area of geothermal potential that shows no signs of geothermal activity at the surface). At the initiation of the project, several countries were reviewed and assessed for their suitability. A number of qualitative criteria were used for country evaluation, including considerations such as current geothermal resource potential, demonstrated government support for renewable energy development, a relatively greenfield geothermal power sector, and little donor involvement to date. From this process, several countries were identified as potential partners. Over the duration of the three-year project, capacity-building activities to support these countries may include: (1) the provision of customized, technical training on aspects of geothermal energy development (depending on the specific needs, priorities, and interests of each partner country); (2) collaborative projects involving developing geologically-appropriate geothermal play fairway approaches to assess geothermal potential; and (3) technical exchanges between the partner country and U.S. geothermal stakeholders. This paper will review key challenges facing developing geothermal sectors, and how the GEODE initiative is addressing them.