Mombasa Classified Daily News Kenya Safari Vacant job in Kenya

Reported by “Wasabi Energy (LON:WAS, ASX:WAS), the company has completed its purchase of 100 per cent of Global Geothermal Ltd. It comes as the company finalised its purchase of a 4.4 per cent minority stake in Global Geothermal from Exergy by issuing 50 million new shares at 2 cents a share as payment. As reported in January last year, the company bought... Read more

Reported by the Jakarta Globe, the Indonesian government “is prepared to spend Rp 3.4 trillion ($366 million) to finance the construction of geothermal and micro-hydro power plants. The money will come from the State Investment Agency (PIP), which has been tasked with funding major infrastructure projects. Soritaon Siregar, the chairman of the PIP, said on Wednesday that the agency would provide loans... Read more

Geothermal power is one of the solutions to solve the Tanzanian energy demand, today and in the future. Geothermal power is renewable, environment friendly and offers base load electricity. Tanzania is a part of the East African rift valley stretching from north to south with many features like volcanoes and hot springs. Consequently it has high potential for electricity production. Geothermal... Read more

The upcoming 8th International Geothermal Conference and the inaugural International Conference on Enhanced Geothermal Systems will take place May 23-25, 2012 in Freiburg Germany. Both events are organized by Enerchange and will bring together a great set of speakers and specialists from many parts of the world. Program of the International Geothermal Conference: website Details on the International Conference on Enhanced Geothermal Systems:... Read more

The German Geothermal Congress, organized by the German Geothermal Energy Association (Geothermie Bundesverband) will take place in Karlruhe, Germany, November 13-16, 2012. The congress is now issuing its Call for Papers. With numerous workshops and forums on topics of shallow and deep geothermal energy, this years Geothermal Congress DGK will offer to its participants again a manifold program. In his “Call... Read more

A spinoff by the University of Minnesota in the U.S. expects to be using sequestered CO2 instead of water to extract geothermal heat from geothermal wells. Heat Mining Company LLC, said in a written statement that the use of sequestered carbon dioxide will allow electricity to be provided from many more sites than would be possible with conventional water-based systems and... Read more

Reported by several media outlets earlier this month and in the past, old coal mines have a potential to be used for the utilization of geothermal heat for heating above the surface. There are projects and actual existing installations, e.g. in Springhill, Nova Scotia and planned project at Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories both in Canada. There have also been efforts... Read more

Reported from Malaysia, “the phase one of Tawau Green Energy Geothermal Power Plant involving generating capacity of 36MW is expected to be completed in 2015. The power plant at Apas Kiri, which is the first renewable and sustainable project of its kind in Malaysia, will supply 30MW to the Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) grid. Sustainable Energy Development Authority of Malaysia (SEDA... Read more

A recently posted video shows the technical set-up of the Kalina geothermal power plant in Unterhaching Germany, The video is presented by Wasabi Energy in a corporate video featuring the geothermal power plant of Unterhaching. The plant utilizes a Kalina Cycle binary system built by Siemens and produces power and heat for the local community. … and now here the link to... Read more

Reported locally, “Diponegoro University of Semarang, central Java, is building a Geothermal Research Center to be run by the Faculty of Science and Mathematics to examine potential geothermal resources in Indonesia. “The Geophysics and Geothermal Research Centre building begins today and is targeted to be completed in November 2012,” said Dean of the university’s Faculty of Science and Mathematics M Nur... Read more

In a release by the company, “Ram Power, Corp. announces its operating results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012. The achievement of commercial operation of the Phase I expansion at San Jacinto led to a major improvement in the financial performance of the Company. With $6.3 million in revenue and $2.7 million of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and... Read more

Pöyry Deutschland GmbH in association with GeoThermal Engineering GmbH (GeoT) has been awarded a Consulting Contract by the African Union Commission (AUC) in cooperation with the KfW Development Bank for the establishment and operation of the Geothermal Risk Mitigation Facility (GRMF) for Eastern Africa. The value of the contract amounts to EUR 3.5 million ($4.5 million) and it has been awarded in April 2012. The... Read more

A milestone geothermal project is celebrating its success in a dedication ceremony on May 18, 2012. EnergySource is holding a ceremony at its Hudson Ranch I geothermal power plant, the first stand-alone geothermal power plant at the Salton Sea resource in more than 20 years. The project represents a number of interesting milestones and facts that are interesting to mention. A... Read more

Reported by Power Engineering, El Salvador will receive a grant of $ 2 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). The grant is to help the country to build and maintain a geothermal training center for Latin America and the Caribbean. The three courses of the program will be held over a three year time period from 2013-1015 at the University of... Read more

Reported by BN Americas, El Salvador plans an ambitious renewable energy expansion of up to 689 MW throughout 2026 as part of a Master Plan for Renewable Energy Development. The plan was announced in January 2011 and worked on with the support of the Japan International Cooperation Agency. While Hydro and Concentrated solar power seem to be a key focus, geothermal is... Read more

Scientific Drilling International announced in April that it has named Jayme Sperring its new Director for Global Sales and Marketing. Based out of the company’s headquarter in Houston, Texas he will manage the company’s global directional drilling and production logging sales team and marketing department. Sperring joins Scientific Drilling from National Oilwell Varco (NOV), a manufacturer of drilling, fishing and completion downhole... Read more

With the release of the latest Annual Power Production and Development Report by the U.S. Geothermal Energy Association in April this year, there are increasing voices over concerns as they relate to the growth of the U.S. geothermal market. Geothermal project development takes comparably longer than other renewable energy projects, which has been for years a concern. So uncertainties about government... Read more

Reported earlier this year, Australian geothermal developer KUTh Energy had signed an agreement with Kula Energy with the result of the latter being able to increase its stake after certain milestones have been achived. The companies now changed the agreement with the result of KUTh Energy keeping a majority stake by limiting Kula Energy to the possibility of earning a stake... Read more

A recent interview by the organizers of the upcoming GeoPower Indonesia & Philippines event in Jakarta, Indonesia, June 6-7, 2012, caught my attention. In the interview Jan Bartak, Senior Head of Business Development of International Power – GDF Suez provides an insight into his company’s role and objectives in the geothermal sector. International Power – GDF Suez signed a PPA for... Read more

The Climate Investment Funds (CIF) “provides a unique financing instrument designed to support low-emissions and climate-resilient development through scaled-up financing channeled through the African Development Bank, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank Group.” The fund recently allocated endorsed parts of a $250 million investment plan to promote private and public sector-lead renewable... Read more

Reported from the Philippines, Energy Development Corp. (EDC) is ” looking at a complete capital expenditure of about P20 billion ($47 m) company-wide. A big chunk of that capex, P6 billion ($14 m) of that P20 billion, is the [Burgos] wind project. If the feed-in tariff is postponed and delayed and Burgos is moved to next year, that will not... Read more

For the upcoming International Conference on Enhanced Geothermal Systems (ICEGS), the organizers of the conference offer EGS projects in development to present themselves in a poster exhibition. The exhibition expects posters to showcase EGS specific parameters and the planned use. In particular it is asked that the posters present target geology and structures, as well as the stimulation concept and... Read more

Reported by Bloomberg and other media outlets, Saudi Arabia is starting an ambitious investment project to develop up to 41,000 MW in solar power capacity and 21,000 MW combined nuclear, wind and geothermal power generation capacity. It is so far unclear how large the geothermal portion of those planned 21,000 MW is, but it shows an interesting direction. While the focus... Read more

A recent article on Forbes, talks about the continuing challenges for the clean energy technology sector to raise financing on the financial markets through IPOs. The outlook is described as “rather bleak” with three companies recently having had to cancel their plans to go public in the U.S. in April of this year. According to the article the main reason seem to... Read more

In a release by the development company, U.S. Geothermal announces that its EPC contractor TAS Energy “has started performance testing on the new 8.6 net megawatt San Emidio power plant. Performance testing includes guaranteed output, capacity, reliability and continuous operation tests that the plant must pass to achieve both commercial operation under the PPA and substantial completion under the EPC... Read more

In connection with the announcement of Enel Green Power about its $126 million investment into building its Cove Fort geothermal projects in Utah, U.S., the company also provided an insight into its geographical focus. Given stagnating power demand and the continued unclear regulatory framework in its home markets Italy and Spain, Enel Green Power aims at putting a corporate focus on... Read more

Reported yesterday, the state legislative in Hawaii has put forward a geothermal energy bill before the governor of Hawaii. The legislation could expand geothermal energy production across the state by amending the Hawaii State Planning Act to encourage development of geothermal energy projects on state and public trust land. “I really believe that the consumer should own the resource because it’s a... Read more

In a release yesterday, the “U.S. Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) announced that Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) will present the keynote address at the fourth annual International Geothermal Energy Showcase to be held this month in Washington, D.C. Sen. Bingaman, the Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is a long-time supporter of the renewable energy sector and recognizes the economic... Read more

Philippine news are writing about that Energy Development Corp. (EDC) sees significant increase in earnings this year with one of its shuttered geothermal power plants expected to run for the entire year albeit at a fraction of its total generating capacity. Richard B. Tantoco, EDC president, said profitability should improve over the P615 million ($14.5 million) the company earned last year... Read more

Reported in local media, the geothermal power project of Mighty River Power has reached a major milestone with the arrival of the towers for the air cooling system for the planned 82 MW geothermal power plant at Ngatamariki, New Zealand. The towers are provided by Ormat and arrived by ship in the Port of Tauranga.  About 90 truckloads of equipment have... Read more

Reported today from Malaysia, “Continental Energy Corporation announced that it has purchased a 10% stake in Tawau Green Energy Sdn. Bhd. (“TGE”), a privately held company based in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. TGE is a geothermal energy developer. On November 29, 2011, TGE entered into a Renewable Energy Power Purchase Agreement (the “PPA”) with Sabah Electricity Sdn. Bhd. (“SESB”) to supply... Read more

Reported from Iran, the Managing director of the Renewable Energy Organization of Iran (REOI) has announced that the country expects to commission its first geothermal power plant in 2013. Attention: a similar article appeared about the same plant in 2009 … so if anyone could confirm if this is happening that would be great. “Yousef Armodeli noted on Tuesday that installing the... Read more

There is the ongoing fear of the expected financial drop in the U.S, given expected tax hikes and spending cuts. For the clean tech and renewable energy sector though the drop could be even harder, so a recent article in the U.S. Annual federal clean tech expenditure had already seen a drop by $10 billion between 2009 and 2011, now that... Read more

Reported yesterday, the North American subsidiary of Italian listed Enel Green Power has started construction of its planned 25 MW geothermal power plant at Cove Fort in Utah. It is expected that the plant will start operate by the end of 2013 and will have cost approximately $126 million. The project has secured a 20-year power purchase agreement with local utility. “We... Read more

In a release last week, the Geothermal Resources Council (GRC) announced the appointment of Steve Ponder as the association’s interim Executive Director, who took up his new duties on May 1. Steve has over 30 years of leadership experience in the renewable energy industry including geothermal development and operations for companies including Unocal, Geothermal Resources International and FPL Energy (FPLE). He helped develop... Read more

Fitch Ratings has announced it has downgraded the rating on Coso Geothermal Power Holdings LLC $629 million ($523 million outstanding) pass through certificates due 2026 from ‘B’ to ‘CCC’. The downgrade reflects the continued decline in net capacity of the Coso geothermal resource (Coso) and projected cash flows that will be insufficient to meet debt obligations. The key driver for the... Read more

Reported from the U.S., Calpine has secured permits to build two new geothermal power plants at the Geysers area in California. The permits come from the air quality regulators and are another milestone in this 100 MW $700 million project. The planned plants are known as Wildhorse and Buckeye. Interesting fact is though that this would set the price at $7... Read more

Today, Fu Chengyu, Chairman of the Board of Sinopec Group, and Haukur Hardarson, Chairman of the Board of the Icelandic company Orka Energy Holding ehf, signed an agreement that expanded their cooperation in harnessing geothermal energy for domestic heating, electricity production and other related projects within and outside China. These parties jointly own Shaanxi Green Energy Geothermal Development Co. Ltd.,... Read more

Last month, Australian geothermal developer KUTh Energy has issued a joint release with UNELCO Electrique du Vanuatu Limited (UNELCO, part of the GDF Suez Group). UNELCO & KUTh unite to make geothermal electricity a reality for Vanuatu. With the Power Purchase Agreement close to being finalised, over half of Port Vila’s electricity could be supplied from a clean, renewable, local resource. “This... Read more

Reported by the Icelandic National Energy Authority, the European Union has granted EUR2 million for a geothermal research program, called Geothermal ERA-NET. The funding is given to the National Energy Authority and Rannís in Iceland and eight European Energy Agencies. The Icelandic Energy Authority will be the project manager and receive EUR 600,000 ($780,000) of the funding.” In cooperation with GEORG (Geothermal... Read more

With ongoing development in the Caribbean, and drilling going well in Dominica, the nearby island state of Montserra (UK territory) has now received the go ahead and “assurance of financial support for geothermal exploration after signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the UK Department of International Development”. “Funds will support phase one of an exploratory well drilling program over 12 months... Read more

Greenearth Energy has made another important step in its development of the Geelong Geothermal Power Project in Australia having chose the proposed site for the project. “A preliminary memorandum of intent has been entered into with Holcim (Australia) to site the geothermal power plant at Holcim’s Moriac quarry, 8.5 kilometres north-northwest of Alcoa’s (ASX: AAI) brown coal-fired power station at Anglesea,... Read more

Reported last week, the Philippine Energy Development Corp. (EDC), reports it has executed shareholders’ agreements (SHA) and ancillary documents with Hot Rock Ltd. (HRL) of Australia. “In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, EDC said the agreement will set up project companies for each of the Longavi geothermal concession in Chile, and the Chocopata and Quellaapacheta geothermal authorizations in Peru. The... Read more

Announced last week, the University of Nevada in Reno is going to host the 2nd National Geothermal Academy this summer, inviting scientists, engineers and students. The program starts June 18 and ends August 10, 2012. It features 8 modules of various elements on geothermal energy project development. The University was chosen to host the eight-week session of courses last year by a... Read more

Reported locally, strict environmental regulations in Hawaii have resulted in a lack of investment, due to the cost in time and money for developers. The subcommittee of the state Environmental Council now heard from potential geothermal developers in the state on why the State Land Department should be allowed to waive certain environmental regulations. The cost and timelines of the current rules... Read more

Last week, Enel Green Power inaugurated its solar-geothermal plant at Stillwater, Nevada. It is the world’s first plant of this kind. The head of Enel Green Power North America, Francesco Venturini and Governor Brian Sandoval were present at the inauguration ceremony at the plant and praised the plant for its unique combination of two renewable energy sources for power generation. The combined... Read more

In a recent release the Geothermal Resources Council (GRC) announces “the opening of nominations for this year’s GRC Awards. The awards recognize distinguished colleagues in the geothermal community from around the world and have been a highlight of the geothermal calendar since the late 1970s. The winners will honored at the GRC Annual Member Meeting and Awards Luncheon, the climax to... Read more

ThinkGeoEnergy follows the upcoming International Conference on Enhanced Geothermal Systems (ICEGS 2012) to take place in Freiburg, Germany on May 25, 2012. As part of the conference I was able to speak with Dr. Thomas Kölbel, Senior Manager at German utility EnBW. He will be speaking at the conference on the cost of power generation from geothermal in the context... Read more

Over the years I have been following AltaRock Energy and its activities. I also had the pleasure meeting the CEO of the company Susan Petty at various events over the years. So I am very grateful for the chance I had to receive a bit more insight into the company’s project and activities as part of a recent interview with... Read more

At the upcoming International Conference on Enhanced Geothermal Systems (ICEGS), several case studies of EGS projects will be presented. Australian Geodynamics will present the Innamincka Deeps IV project in the Cooper Basin via a vide-conference. Part of that presentation will be discussion about the corrosion and blow-out at the Habanero 3 well in April 2009. Currently, Geodynamics is drillikng Habanero 4 and... Read more