Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from December 14, 2025

Just In

New Zealand Geothermal Exploration Expands into Taranaki and Waikato Regions

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...

Germany Unveils Groundbreaking KfW–Munich Re Program to De-Risk Deep Geothermal Heat Projects

Germany Launches Landmark Financing Program to Accelerate Deep Geothermal Heat Projects By: Robert Buluma Germany has taken a decisive step toward securing a climate-neutral heat future. On December 18, 2025, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWK), KfW Development Bank , and global reinsurer Munich Re officially launched a groundbreaking funding program designed to unlock large-scale investments in deep geothermal energy for municipal and industrial heat supply. The new initiative, known as the KfW Geothermal Promotional Loan (KfW-Förderkredit Geothermie), directly addresses one of the most persistent bottlenecks in geothermal development: the high financial risk associated with drilling deep geothermal wells. By combining low-interest loans with comprehensive risk coverage, the program is set to significantly accelerate geothermal deployment across Germany. Why Deep Geothermal Matters for Germany’s Heat Transition While Germany has made remarkable progre...

American Critical Resources and Plum Acquisition Corp. IV Sign LOI for SPAC Merger to Advance U.S. Geothermal Lithium Project

Revolutionizing Energy: The Synergy of Geothermal Power and Lithium Extraction at Hell's Kitchen Posted by  Robert Buluma  on December 20, 2025 In an era where the world is racing toward sustainable energy solutions, the intersection of geothermal power and lithium production is emerging as a game-changer. As electric vehicles (EVs), renewable energy storage, and advanced technologies demand ever-increasing supplies of critical minerals, innovative projects are stepping up to meet the challenge. One such groundbreaking initiative is the Hell's Kitchen project by American Critical Resources (ACR), a subsidiary of Controlled Thermal Resources Holdings Inc. (CTR) . This California-based endeavor not only harnesses the Earth's natural heat for clean electricity but also extracts lithium a vital component in batteries ,directly from geothermal brines. With a recent announcement of a proposed business combination with Plum Acquisition Corp. IV (Nasdaq: PLMK), a special purpose ac...

Innargi Granted Permit for Geothermal Exploration and Production in Virum, Denmark

Geothermal Energy Permits in Denmark: Mapping the Country’s Quiet Heat Revolution (December 2025) By: Robert Buluma Denmark is globally admired for its wind power leadership, ambitious climate policies, and strong district heating systems. Yet beneath its flat landscapes lies another energy resource that is steadily gaining strategic importance: geothermal energy. As of December 2025, Denmark’s geothermal sector is entering a new phase marked by fresh permit applications, and even approval  expanding geographic interest, and stronger alignment with the country’s long-term decarbonization goals. An overview of current geothermal permits and applications reveals not only where development is happening, but also how geothermal energy is quietly positioning itself as a cornerstone of Denmark’s renewable heat future. Geothermal Energy and Denmark’s Heat Transition More than 60 percent of Danish households are connected to district heating networks, making heat decarbonization a national...

A Quiet Revolution Underground: Prenzlau’s Geothermal Leap Toward a Fully Renewable Heat Future

Prenzlau’s Geothermal Breakthrough: A Decisive Step Toward a Fully Renewable Heat Future By: Robert Buluma The city of Prenzlau, located in northeastern Germany, has reached a major milestone in its transition toward sustainable energy. In December 2025, Stadtwerke Prenzlau announced a decisive breakthrough in its geothermal project after successfully encountering geothermal water at a depth of 983 meters. This discovery represents a critical step forward for the city’s ambition to fully decarbonize its heat supply and positions Prenzlau as a leading example of how medium-sized towns can harness geothermal energy for district heating. The geothermal water discovered during drilling operations is estimated to be around 200 million years old and is contained within a saline sandstone formation deep underground. With a temperature of approximately 44°C and a planned production rate of 130 cubic meters per hour, the resource offers a reliable and continuous source of renewable heat. A test...

Strataphy and Baker Hughes Partner to Accelerate Geothermal Cooling in Saudi Arabia

Strataphy and Baker Hughes Forge Strategic Alliance to Accelerate Geothermal Cooling and Saudi Arabia’s Energy Transition By: Robert Buluma Saudi Arabia’s journey toward a low-carbon, diversified energy future has taken a decisive step forward with the signing of a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Strataphy and global energy technology leader Baker Hughes. Announced in Khobar in December 2025, the partnership signals a powerful convergence of deep-tech innovation and industrial-scale execution,aimed squarely at accelerating geothermal cooling and advancing the Kingdom’s broader energy transition agenda. At a time when cooling demand is surging across the Middle East,driven by rapid urbanization, giga-projects, data centers, and industrial expansion,this collaboration positions geothermal energy not merely as an alternative, but as a cornerstone technology for sustainable infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. A Landmark Agreement with Strategic Implications Under the MoU,...

Kiskunhalas Geothermal Project: Drilling Hungary’s Clean Energy Future

An Eight-Billion-Forint Geothermal Bet: Drilling the Future Beneath Kiskunhalas By Robert Buluma | Alphaxioms Insights |  Beneath the vast plains of Hungary’s Great Alföld, immense heat has been quietly stored for millions of years. Now, that hidden energy is poised to reshape the country’s energy future. The region around Kiskunhalas is set to become a focal point of Hungary’s geothermal ambitions, following the signing of a HUF 7.86 billion (approximately EUR 20 million) contract for geothermal drilling and well-testing works. The agreement was signed by a subsidiary of MVM Group , Hungary’s state-owned energy company, and covers geothermal exploration activities to be carried out over the next three years across several areas of the Great Plain. This marks one of the most significant state-backed geothermal initiatives in Hungary in recent years. Unlocking Earth’s Heat to Cut Energy Dependence The project’s strategic objective is clear: to pave the way for geothermal power pla...

How the Constellation–Calpine Merger Pushed Geothermal Into the Baseload Spotlight

Constellation–Calpine Merger: Why Geothermal and Firm Clean Power Now Matter More Than Ever By: Robert Buluma The U.S. electricity sector is entering a defining moment, one where scale, regulatory scrutiny, and the search for firm clean power, are converging. The approval of Constellation’s $26.6 billion acquisition of Calpine is not just a headline-grabbing merger; it is a powerful signal about the future structure of power markets and the growing strategic value of geothermal energy and other always-on renewables. As federal regulators force divestments, allow unprecedented scale, and reassert antitrust authority, one question becomes unavoidable: **where does geothermal fit in a power system increasingly dominated by mega-utilities? The Deal,and Why It Matters for Clean Baseload To close the acquisition, Constellation agreed to divest six power plants and a minority stake in a seventh across Texas, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. These concessions were demanded by federal regulators c...

PGEO Pioneers Indonesia's Geothermal-Powered Green Data Centers Revolution

PGEO’s Big Leap: Powering Indonesia’s Green Data Centers with Geothermal Energy By: Robert Buluma Indonesia’s digital economy is expanding at breakneck speed. With more than 212 million internet users, rapid cloud adoption, AI deployment, fintech growth, and government-led digitalization, the country is witnessing an unprecedented surge in demand for data centers. But behind the glowing screens and humming servers lies a critical question: how will Indonesia power this digital future sustainably? PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy Tbk (PGEO ) believes it has the answer,green data centers powered by geothermal energy. In a landmark move that could redefine the intersection between energy and digital infrastructure in Southeast Asia, PGEO has unveiled plans to expand its business into geothermal-powered green data centers, a first-of-its-kind initiative in Indonesia. This strategy places geothermal energy not just as a baseload power source, but as a cornerstone of the country’s low-carbon d...

Popular posts from this blog

Eavor Demobilizes Rigs in Geretsried: What It Means for Closed-Loop Geothermal Investors, Heat Markets, and Project Risk

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...

Endurance Energy Tests World's First Subsea Geothermal Well at Axial Seamount

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...

Menengai Geothermal Project Delays Expose Kenya’s Broken Steam Supply Model

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 ...

Geiselbullach Geothermal Project Confirms 10 MW District Heating Capacity

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...

BLM Nevada Geothermal Lease Auction Boosts Renewable Energy Investment amid Solar Land Conflict

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...

KenGen Risks Losing Olkaria Geothermal Wells Over Licence Error

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 ...

Lithium Harvest Plans Alberta Geothermal Power and Lithium Project

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...

Djibouti Pays KenGen: $1M Offer on a Five-Year Geothermal Drilling Debt

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...

Corva and Oliasoft Connect Well Design With Real-Time Drilling

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...

California Court Orders New Environmental Review for Imperial County Geothermal Lithium Project

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...