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Showing posts from February 15, 2026

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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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KenGen Accelerates Geothermal Efficiency: RFP Launched for Olkaria Topping Units

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
KenGen’s Olkaria Topping Units: A Strategic Leap for Kenya’s Geothermal Dominance By: Robert Buluma Image: Kengen Olkaria Field Kenya’s geothermal sector is once again stepping into a higher gear. The release of the RFP for Olkaria Topping Units under reference KGN-BDD-001-2026 signals a bold strategic move by KenGen to maximize steam efficiency, increase power output, and reinforce Kenya’s leadership in geothermal development across Africa. What Are Olkaria Topping Units — And Why Do They Matter? Located in the prolific Olkaria geothermal complex within the Great Rift Valley, the project introduces topping units designed to extract additional energy from high-pressure steam before it enters existing power plants. This is not just an upgrade , it is optimization at scale. Topping units: Increase overall plant efficiency Utilize excess high-pressure steam Enhance megawatt output without drilling entirely new fields Improve return on existing geothermal infrastructure In a capital-inten...
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Nevis selects Iceland Drilling for geothermal drilling operations to commence in 2026

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Nevis Geothermal Energy Project Advances with Iceland Drilling Selected for Landmark Drilling Contract By: Robert Buluma The Nevis Geothermal Energy Project has taken a decisive and exciting step forward. In early 2026, the Nevis Island Administration (NIA ) officially selected Iceland Drilling Company (Jardboranir hf. ) as the successful bidder for the critical drilling phase. This award marks a major milestone after years of planning, positioning Nevis closer than ever to harnessing its geothermal resources for clean, reliable baseload power. Premier the Honourable Mark Brantley, Minister of Finance and Energy, has repeatedly highlighted the significance of this development. In updates shared during his January 27, 2026, press conference and subsequent interviews, he confirmed that Iceland Drilling emerged as the top performer in a rigorous, independent evaluation process. The contract covers the drilling of five major geothermal wells—three production wells and two reinjection wel...
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PGE Invests $3 Million in Green Hydrogen Pilot: Indonesia's Geothermal Leap Toward Net-Zero

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
PGE's $3 Million Leap into Green Hydrogen: Pioneering Indonesia's Sustainable Energy Revolution By: Robert Buluma  In an era where climate change looms large and the world races toward net-zero emissions, Indonesia's energy giant PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE) is making waves with a groundbreaking initiative. Announced on February 11, 2026, PGE is investing approximately three million US dollars in a green hydrogen pilot project at Ulubelu, Lampung. This isn't just another corporate announcement—it's a bold step toward transforming geothermal power into a clean fuel source that could redefine low-carbon energy strategies. Imagine harnessing the Earth's natural heat to produce hydrogen that's as green as the forests of Sumatra. Intrigued? Let's dive deeper into this captivating story of innovation, sustainability, and national pride. The Rise of Green Hydrogen: A Game-Changer in the Energy Transition Green hydrogen is often hailed as the "fue...
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GreenFire Energy and Iron Mountain: The Geothermal–Data Center Alliance Redefining AI Power Infrastructure

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
GreenFire Energy and Iron Mountain : The Geothermal–Data Center Alliance Redefining AI Power Infrastructure By: Robert Buluma The global artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is not just rewriting software it is redrawing the world’s power map. As hyperscale data centers expand to support AI training, cloud services, and edge computing, one reality has become unavoidable: digital infrastructure is only as strong as the energy systems that power it. In a significant and strategic move, GreenFire Energy Inc has partnered with Iron Mountain Data Centers to develop modular geothermal power capacity tailored to support Iron Mountain’s global data center footprint. This collaboration represents more than a supply agreement—it signals a structural shift in how hyperscale facilities secure reliable, scalable, and low-carbon power. AI Is Driving an Energy Reckoning AI workloads are exponentially more energy-intensive than traditional computing. From training large language models to real-t...
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Europe's Geothermal Transition: Why Repurposing Oil Wells Isn't as Simple as It Sounds

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Repurposing Hydrocarbon Wells for Geothermal Applications Insights from Our Interview with Christi on EGS, Storage, and Europe’s Energy Transition Christi is a Geothermal Resource Engineer and PhD Researcher, specializing in deep geothermal systems, closed-loop systems, well repurposing (especially converting old oil/gas wells for geothermal use), Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), and Deep Borehole Heat Exchangers (DBHE). What if the thousands of oil and gas wells scattered across Europe could become the backbone of the geothermal transition? In our recent interview with Christi, a leading researcher involved in the TRANSGEO project, we explored the technical, economic, and regulatory realities of repurposing hydrocarbon wells for geothermal applications , particularly for Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), thermal storage, and district heating integration. From case studies like Groß Schönebeck to regional analysis in Lausitz, Christi offered a grounded and technical perspective o...
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KenGen Reconstitutes Its Board of Consultants,EOI

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
KenGen Reconstitutes Its Board of Consultants: Strengthening Kenya’s Geothermal Ambition Toward 1,267 MW by 2041 Kenya’s geothermal ambition is no longer just about drilling deeper wells or adding incremental megawatts. It is about governance, technical precision, and long-term strategic stewardship. In a decisive move, Kenya Electricity Generating Company PLC (KenGen) has issued an Open International Expression of Interest (EOI) – KGN-GDD-043-2026 to recruit and reconstitute its Board of Consultants. At first glance, it may appear as a standard procurement notice. But in reality, it represents something far more significant: a deliberate strengthening of institutional technical capacity at a time when Kenya’s geothermal trajectory is accelerating. This is not just recruitment. This is structural reinforcement. Kenya’s Geothermal Backbone KenGen is the backbone of Kenya’s power generation landscape. The company produces approximately 73.58% of the country’s installed electricity capa...
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Taiwan's Geothermal Game-Changer: Jingneng & Ormat Launch 12.5MW Jinshan Plant for AI Power Needs

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Taiwan's Geothermal Breakthrough: Jingneng and Ormat Partner for AI-Powered Baseload Energy By: Robert Buluma Taiwan stands on the edge of an energy transformation, driven by surging demand from artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, and data centers. In February 2026, Jingneng Energy Services (進能服, stock code 6692) announced a major collaboration with global geothermal leader Ormat Technologies (NYSE: ORA) . This partnership focuses on developing Taiwan's first large-scale geothermal power plant in Jinshan District, New Taipei City. The 12.5MW facility aims to deliver reliable, 24/7 clean energy starting in December 2027, with annual output reaching 100 million kWh—enough to power about 30,000 households. This project addresses critical gaps in Taiwan's renewable mix. While solar and wind have grown rapidly, they remain intermittent. Geothermal offers true baseload power, unaffected by weather or time of day, making it ideal for energy-intensive industries....
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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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