| Abstract |
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), has launched a Global Atlas for Renewable Energy (Global Atlas) with a component focused on geothermal energy. The Global Atlas is an online Geographic Information System (GIS) linked to a large number of data centers located around the world. It is freely accessible and allows users to visualize information on renewable energy resources worldwide. Currently, several initiatives exist within the community that collect geothermal data. However, the focus areas of these initiatives are often streamlined either to a specific kind of geothermal system (EGS, Hydrothermal etc.), a specific topic (Policies, Installed plants), or geographical coverage (national, region etc.). Equally for resource mapping, a number of different protocols have been used, even across the various geothermal systems that exist . In this, there is also not a single reporting code common to all countries for relating the resource estimates that result from these mapping processes. The consequence being that there is an overrated perception of risk and a lack of proper recognition of the possible contribution of geothermal energy in its many forms (electricity, direct use, heating and cooling) to the energy mix of countries. The Global Atlas brings added value to the geothermal sector by acting as a central repository for geothermal related information across all the relevant systems that exist globally. The Global Atlas includes resource maps , policies, capacity building opportunities, conferences proceedings and information on active geothermal environments . It is envisaged that the geothermal component of the Global Atlas could act as: a tool to aid political discussions on the subject; an entry point for investors’ preliminary search for prospective areas of the world; and also a tool to support further massive ongoing effort by the geothermal community to compare and harmonize assessment protocols and reporting codes for geothermal energy. The strategy for the geothermal component of the Global Atlas is the outcome of a detailed consultation process with the geothermal community, which involved experts, research institutes, private companies, and international agencies working on the subject. This paper will detail the data infrastructure of the Global Atlas, and the strategy towards the development of the geothermal component. |