The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a joint initiative with Iceland and Australia to develop geothermal energy technologies.
DOE’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs Katharine Fredriksen, Australia’s Ambassador to Iceland Sharyn Minahan, and Iceland’s Minister of Industry Energy and Tourism Ossur Skarphedinsson signed the charter of the International Partnership for Geothermal Technology (IPGT), signaling the commitment of the three countries to aggressively foster and promote geothermal technologies to promote energy security and address global climate change.
These three nations have more geothermal expertise and experience than any other nations in the world. The framework of this partnership brings international collaboration on policy and the technical aspects of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) such as deep drilling and geothermal energy conversion.
"Enhanced geothermal systems have the potential to be the world’s only ever-present form of baseload renewable energy," Acting Assistant Secretary Fredriksen said. "This international collaborative will bind the U.S., Australia and Iceland to work together to accelerate the development of geothermal energy, bringing this clean, domestic and natural energy to the market in the near-term to confront the serious challenges of climate change and energy security."
The IPGT aims to foster close working relationships among the international partners to support an accelerated evolution of geothermal technology through knowledge gained from projects in different countries and geologic settings.
In addition to establishing the IPGT, ministerial representatives of Australia, Iceland and the U.S. held a two day workshop bringing together experts from government, industry and academia to discuss research, development and deployment priorities for geothermal energy. The IPGT is open to expansion and in the future may include members from other countries with commitments to emerging geothermal energy technologies.
In related news, U.S. EGS company AltaRock Energy Inc., reached an agreement to explore the potential of developing geothermal projects on more than 650,000 acres owned by Weyerhaeuser (NYSE: WY).
AltaRock recently received funding from Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) for the continued development of its enhanced geotheraml systems technology.
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