| Keywords |
IEA, GIA, international cooperation, sustainable use, environmental issues, EGS, advanced drilling, direct use, climate change |
| Abstract |
The Geothermal Implementing Agreement (GIA) provides a flexible and powerful framework for international cooperation on geothermal research and technology under the auspices of the International Energy Agency (IEA). It connects national and industry programmes for exploration, development and utilization of geothermal resources and establishes direct cooperative links among experts in the participating countries, industries and organizations, thus helping increase effectiveness. The GIA’s activities are chiefly directed towards the coordination of national and industry geothermal programmes, with joint participation of members on specific studies. Emphasis is on sharing of information, developing techniques and best practices, and producing and disseminating authoritative information. Current IEA scenarios indicate that unless governments implement energy saving and renewable energy options, energy security problems and a sharp increase in CO2 emissions with related significant climate change effects are likely. The IEA recently extended the mandate of the GIA for a 3rd 5-year term (to 2012), and the IEA-GIA embraced these challenges in its new 3rd term mission: to promote sustainable use of geothermal energy worldwide by improving existing and developing new technologies to render exploitable the vast and widespread global geothermal resources, facilitating the transfer of know-how, providing high quality information and widely communicating geothermal energy’s strategic, economic and environmental benefits, and thereby contribute to the mitigation of climate change. To accomplish this mission, the GIA is concentrating its current efforts in four major areas, pursued in the following Annexes: I- Environmental Impacts of Geothermal Energy Development, II- Enhanced Geothermal Systems, III- Advanced Geothermal Drilling Techniques and VIII- Direct Use of Geothermal Energy. GIA’s activities within these topics have grown significantly in the past few years with the addition of: induced seismicity studies associated with EGS reservoir development/production; investigation of sustainable use strategies; development of economic guidelines for EGS reservoir economic models; development of recommended procedures to create, test and evaluate EGS parameters, and development of new forms for geographic display of data on the internet. Geothermal is gaining a growing recognition as one of the major renewable energy options, with vast worldwide potential and ability to make a significant contribution. As a result, worldwide geothermal development is now in a rapid state of growth. The IEA-GIA is increasing its efforts to support and help accelerate this growth in a sustainable manner, including: by convening international workshops on special topics like induced seismicity and sustainability, by attempting to determine the global development potential of geothermal energy (conventional, EGS, etc.) and estimating the contribution it could make towards the mitigation of climate change (useful as input for the IPCC 2010 renewable energy report), by producing a Geothermics Special Issue on Sustainability (2009); and by participating in international renewable energy conferences and workshops to raise awareness of geothermal energy and educate the public, government and finance decision makers, etc. The IEA-GIA, now well into its 3rd 5-year term and 12th year of operation, is experiencing significant growth in membership, having nearly doubled in the past 3 years, and as of May 2009, with 19 members, including: 12 countries (Australia, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Spain, Switzerland, United States), the EC, 4 industries (Geodynamics, Green Rock Energy, ORME Jeotermal, Ormat Technologies) and 2 national organizations (CanGEA and Geothermal Group [APPA]). The current global energy scene and geothermal’s potential contribution are outlined; brief reviews of the IEA and the GIA operation and structure are presented; and the GIA’s current activities and achievements for supporting sustainable geothermal development and thereby aiding the mitigation of climate change are described. Comments on the GIA’s future plans are also included. |