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Showing posts from February 16, 2025

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New Zealand Geothermal Exploration Expands into Taranaki and Waikato Regions

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Geothermal Exploration in Taranaki and Waikato: Unlocking New Energy Opportunities in New Zealand New Zealand is expanding its geothermal ambitions beyond the country’s established development zones. Two Māori-led exploration projects in Taranaki and South Waikato have received a combined NZ$5.95 million in government grants to investigate previously underexplored geothermal resources and assess their potential to support regional growth, energy resilience, employment, and decarbonisation.  The initiatives reflect a broader shift in geothermal development. While New Zealand’s geothermal industry has traditionally focused on high-temperature resources suitable for electricity generation, the new projects will also examine lower-temperature heat that could serve industrial, agricultural, commercial, and community applications. Government Funding for Two Exploration Projects The New Zealand Government has allocated NZ$3 million from the Regional Infrastructure Fund to the Taranaki Ge...
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Ignis Partners with Procubex to Advance Geothermal Exploration in Türkiye

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Ignis Awards Drilling Consultancy Contract to Procubex for Geothermal Exploration in Türkiye By: Robert Buluma The global geothermal industry has marked yet another milestone as Ignis awards a prestigious drilling consultancy contract to Procubex for an upcoming deep wells campaign in Türkiye. This contract represents a significant step in Ignis' commitment to advancing sustainable energy solutions and expanding its geothermal energy portfolio. Procubex: A Leading Geothermal Consultancy Firm Procubex is a renowned engineering consultancy firm specializing in geothermal energy exploration, feasibility studies, project management, drilling operations, and well completion services. With a strong presence across Europe and Türkiye, Procubex has built a reputation for delivering cutting-edge geothermal energy solutions that drive efficiency, safety, and sustainability. Strategic Partnership for Geothermal Development Under this contract, Procubex will provide critical support in managin...
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Powering the Future: Elemental Energies and Iceland Drilling Forge Global Geothermal Partnership

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Elemental Energies and Iceland Drilling Join Forces to Revolutionize Global Geothermal Projects By: Robert Buluma The geothermal energy sector is experiencing a seismic shift, and two industry leaders, Elemental Energies and Iceland Drilling Company, are taking it to the next level. In a groundbreaking move, the two companies have launched a global joint venture that promises to deliver comprehensive geothermal solutions for projects worldwide. The new partnership combines Elemental Energies’ expertise in subsurface and well engineering with Iceland Drilling’s cutting-edge geothermal drilling services, creating a powerful alliance designed to meet the growing demand for clean, renewable energy. Most People feel Geothermal is not taking a center stage but we feel otherwise given the current unfoldings A Bold Step Toward Sustainable Energy Solutions With over 70 years of experience and hundreds of geothermal wells constructed globally, Iceland Drilling stands at the forefront of geotherm...
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Ignis raises $12.5m in Series A First Closure for its Geothermal portfolio

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Ignis H2 Energy Raises $12.5M in Series A First Close: Paving the Way for a Sustainable Future in Geothermal Power By: Robert Buluma An image example of a geothermal drilling rig at Eden Geothermal In a groundbreaking move, Ignis H2 Energy Inc. has successfully secured $12.5 million in the first close of its Series A funding round, a game-changer for the geothermal industry. The funding comes from a distinguished consortium of investors, including leading funds, private individuals, and strategic partners like drilling contractor Nabors Industries. The round is led by alfa8 , a firm dedicated to advancing technologies for a sustainable future. This infusion of capital is set to accelerate Ignis Energy's mission to develop geothermal power across the globe, tapping into vast untapped energy reserves in the USA, Turkey, Indonesia, and Italy. This is not the first time we are seeing Geothermal startups raise tangible amounts of money as Sagegeosystems also had raised a similar amount...
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Unlocking the Potential of Geothermal Energy for Data Centers: Why Tech Giants Should Leverage This Sustainable Power Source

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Data centers are the backbone of the digital age, facilitating everything from cloud computing to artificial intelligence (AI) applications. However, their energy-intensive operations have raised concerns about sustainability and operational costs. Geothermal energy has emerged as a viable solution to address these challenges with case examples also derived from Nuclear Energy Robert Buluma Sneak pick inside a data center This article explores how data centers globally are leveraging geothermal energy to reduce costs, with case studies from Kenya, Meta, Sage Geosystems, and others, comparing geothermal energy to alternative energy sources. The Energy Demands of Data Centers Data centers consume significant amounts of electricity, with cooling systems alone accounting for up to 40% of their total energy usage. Projections indicate that by 2030, data centers could consume as much as 9% of the United States' annual electricity generation.  This substantial energy demand has prompted ...
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Mexico’s Energy Reform: President Sheinbaum’s Geothermal Revolution

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Mexico’s Energy Reform: A Climate Scientist’s Vision for Geothermal and Renewables By: Robert Buluma The president of Mexico Mexico is on the brink of a transformative energy shift under the leadership of President Claudia Sheinbaum, a renowned climate scientist. Her administration has introduced an ambitious energy reform aimed at redefining the country’s approach to power generation, prioritizing energy sovereignty, sustainability, and an accelerated transition to renewable sources particularly geothermal energy. France also is amongst the many countries which have taken a leap to revamp their Geothermal A Reform to Reshape Mexico’s Energy Landscape The initiative, presented to the Senate, seeks to restructure the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), Petróleos Mexicanos (PEMEX), and other key energy institutions. The goal is clear: to ensure Mexico’s energy security while reducing reliance on fossil fuels by expanding investment in cleaner, more sustainable sources like geothermal p...
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Eavor Demobilizes Rigs in Geretsried: What It Means for Closed-Loop Geothermal Investors, Heat Markets, and Project Risk

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Eavor Demobilizes Rigs from Geretsried: What It Really Means for Closed-Loop Geothermal For three years, two drilling rigs on a farm estate near Geretsried, a Bavarian town about 40 km south of Munich, stood as the symbol of the world's most ambitious closed-loop geothermal experiment. Now in October 2026,  Eavor Technologies, the Calgary-based developer of the Eavor-Loop, has told the town and its heating utility that both rigs would leave the site . The company said keeping idle rigs and specialist services on site was costly, and that releasing them would help put the project in the strongest position to continue with Loop 2 once its commercial structure is reworked . On the surface, this is a logistics decision. Underneath, it is one of the clearest signals yet about where first-of-a-kind geothermal technology stands, and how hard it is to turn a technical proof into a bankable business. This article explains exactly what happened, what the move means and what it does not mean...
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Endurance Energy Tests World's First Subsea Geothermal Well at Axial Seamount

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Endurance Energy Tests the World's First Subsea Geothermal Well: What the Axial Seamount Demonstration Really Proved What if geothermal energy did not need a power plant on land? What if electricity could be produced directly from the Earth's heat beneath the ocean, with generators sitting on the seafloor and sending power to coastal grids? On October 19, 2026, Seattle-based startup Endurance Energy announced a major step toward that idea. The company said it had drilled and completed the world's first subsea geothermal well and placed a 3-ton test power plant nearly a mile beneath the Pacific. It also reported net-positive electricity from heat at an active underwater volcano, according to its announcement on PR Newswire. The headline numbers are modest. The Adélie prototype produced more electricity than it used for about 8.7 seconds. During that time it delivered a median net output of about 2 kilowatts and a peak of 16.5 kilowatts. One detail matters more than any other...
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Menengai Geothermal Project Delays Expose Kenya’s Broken Steam Supply Model

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Menengai’s Broken Promise: How Kenya’s Geothermal Model Lost the Steam Thematic image of the Olkaria Geothermal Field  Kenya’s Menengai geothermal project was sold as a model of modern public-private partnership. The state would carry the difficult and expensive burden of geothermal exploration and drilling. Private power producers would then build, own and operate power plants. Geothermal Development Company would supply the steam; the independent power producers would convert it into electricity; Kenya Power would buy the output. On paper, the arrangement was elegant. In practice, Menengai has exposed a far more uncomfortable reality: Kenya’s public steam-supply model is not delivering the certainty it promised. Menengai Phase I was designed to produce 105 megawatts from three 35 MW plants. GDC’s own project page says the three plants were awarded to Globeleq Menengai Geothermal, Sosian Menengai Geothermal Power and OrPower Twenty Two under a build-own-operate structure. Yet the ...
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Geiselbullach Geothermal Project Confirms 10 MW District Heating Capacity

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Geothermal milestone at Geiselbullach: 10 MW of heat confirmed after successful second deep well test On 15 August 2026 the Geiselbullach geothermal project reached a pivotal technical milestone: performance testing of the second deep production well completed successfully, delivering a sustained flow of 90 liters per second of thermal water at 79–80 °C. These measured parameters translate into roughly 10 MW of usable thermal power for district heating, enough to replace a portion of heat currently supplied by the municipal waste-to-energy plant (AHKW) and to create headroom for expanding the regional district heating network. The result confirms the project’s technical assumptions and moves the scheme into system-integration and commissioning activities ahead of planned commercial deliveries for the 2027 heating season. This article explains the test results and their significance, outlines the technical and operational consequences, and places the Geiselbullach development in the bro...
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BLM Nevada Geothermal Lease Auction Boosts Renewable Energy Investment amid Solar Land Conflict

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
BLM’s Nevada Geothermal Lease Auction Signals Rising Competition for Federal Energy Land The Bureau of Land Management’s latest geothermal lease sale in Nevada attracted nearly $4.83 million in total receipts, highlighting growing investor interest in geothermal resources as electricity demand rises . The auction also exposed an increasingly important land-use conflict: several geothermal parcels overlap with proposed utility-scale solar projects, including NextEra Energy’s 1,000-megawatt Sawtooth Energy Center. The October 20, 2026, sale offered 83 parcels covering approximately 265,155 acres across 10 Nevada counties. Bidders placed offers on 60 parcels covering 186,641 acres, while 23 parcels received no bids. The results provide a new measure of competition for federal geothermal acreage in one of the United States’ most important geothermal states. Auction Results The Nevada auction attracted 32 registered bidders, of which 18 submitted at least one bid. Across the sale, bidders s...
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Lithium Harvest Plans Alberta Geothermal Power and Lithium Project

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Lithium Harvest’s Alberta Geothermal Project Could Combine Renewable Power and Domestic Lithium Production Lithium Harvest Holding A/S has signed a letter of intent with an unnamed geothermal development partner to establish a joint venture for an integrated geothermal power and lithium production facility in Alberta, Canada. At full nameplate capacity, the proposed project is expected to produce approximately 28,500 tonnes of lithium carbonate annually while generating 0.67 TWh of renewable electricity each year. The development would use a single geothermal resource to supply both baseload power and lithium-bearing brine for direct lithium extraction and refining.  A Dual-Output Geothermal Development The proposed Alberta facility reflects a growing effort to extract more value from geothermal resources than electricity generation alone. Traditional geothermal power projects produce electricity by bringing hot underground fluids to the surface. Depending on resource temperature a...
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KenGen Risks Losing Olkaria Geothermal Wells Over Licence Error

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
KenGen Risks Losing Olkaria Wells Over 18-Year Licence Blunder Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) faces a serious legal and operational risk at Olkaria after an error in the coordinates of its geothermal licence left part of the company’s wells, steam infrastructure and other assets outside its legally recognised area. The licensing mistake, made nearly two decades ago, remains unresolved despite the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum acknowledging the problem in 2017.  The dispute has raised questions about the security of KenGen’s investments, the government’s management of geothermal resources and the potential consequences for Kenya’s electricity supply. Olkaria is the country’s most important geothermal centre and accounts for the overwhelming majority of Kenya’s installed geothermal generation capacity.  Licence Error Exposes Strategic Assets The problem dates back to September 19, 2008, when the Ministry of Energy and Petroleum issued KenGen a licence covering ...
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Djibouti Pays KenGen: $1M Offer on a Five-Year Geothermal Drilling Debt

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Djibouti Pays KenGen: A $1 Million Offer on a Five-Year-Old Geothermal Drilling Debt Djibouti has finally moved to pay part of what it owes Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) for drilling work done near Lake Assal. The amount is small next to KenGen's balance sheet. What it says about selling geothermal drilling services across Africa matters a lot more. KenGen's latest annual report says Djibouti's state geothermal agency, the Office Djiboutien de Développement de l'Énergie Géothermique (ODDEG), has offered a first instalment of about $1 million (Sh129 million) against outstanding invoices of $2.13 million (Sh276.03 million), according to Business Daily. "ODDEG has acknowledged the debt and has proposed an initial payment of $1 million as the first instalment towards settlement," KenGen said in the report. KenGen is Kenya's largest power producer, with about 54% of the market. The Kenyan government owns 70% of the company and the public holds t...
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Corva and Oliasoft Connect Well Design With Real-Time Drilling

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Corva and Oliasoft Build a Continuous Learning Loop for Smarter Well Construction Introduction Corva AI and Oliasoft have announced a strategic collaboration designed to connect well engineering, real-time drilling operations and post-well analysis through a bidirectional digital workflow. The integration links Oliasoft WellDesign with Corva’s Real-Time AI platform, creating a continuous information loop in which engineering plans guide field execution and drilling results improve future well designs.  The partnership addresses one of the persistent weaknesses in modern well construction: the separation between planning software and operational systems. Although operators generate large volumes of engineering and drilling data, those datasets often remain fragmented across departments, applications and reporting processes. The result is slower decision-making, repeated manual work and limited transfer of lessons from one well to the next. By connecting design assumptions with liv...
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California Court Orders New Environmental Review for Imperial County Geothermal Lithium Project

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
California Appeals Court Orders New Environmental Review for Imperial County Geothermal–Lithium Project Image: California Salton Lake Sea Hell’s Kitchen geothermal and lithium extraction plan sent back for deeper water, air-quality and mitigation analysis under CEQA A California appeals court has ordered Imperial County to conduct a more rigorous environmental review of the proposed Hell’s Kitchen geothermal power plant and lithium extraction project near the Salton Sea. The Fourth District Court of Appeal found that the county’s original environmental impact report (EIR) did not adequately address long-term water availability, enforceable mitigation measures for water shortages, or potential air-quality impacts tied to the receding Salton Sea. The ruling partially reverses a lower court decision and remands the case to Imperial County Superior Court, requiring the county and project developer Controlled Thermal Resources to address the identified deficiencies before the project can m...
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