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Showing posts from August 16, 2026

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Ethiopia’s Corbetti Geothermal Project Advances Renewable Energy Development

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Corbetti Geothermal Project: Ethiopia’s Ambitious Plan to Harness Clean Energy for Growth Ethiopia’s Corbetti Geothermal project has taken a significant step forward after signing a contract with the United Kingdom’s Marriott Drilling Group to drill up to four exploration wells near Shashemene in Oromia. The agreement marks the beginning of a new phase for one of Africa’s most closely watched geothermal developments and could help Ethiopia diversify its electricity supply beyond hydropower. The project is being advanced by Taranis Operations Ltd, which recently acquired a majority interest, alongside the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), which retains an approximately 40% minority stake. PIDG has also committed an additional USD 7.2 million through its project-development arm, InfraCo Africa Business Development Limited. The drilling programme is expected to begin early next year after a rig arrives at the Corbetti site and final preparations are completed. The initial e...
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Plum IV and CTR’s Geothermal Critical Minerals Deal Takes Shape

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Plum Acquisition Corp. IV and  Controlled Thermal Resources Outline a Large-Scale Geothermal and Critical Minerals Platform Plum Acquisition Corp. IV (“Plum IV”) and Controlled Thermal Resources Holdings Inc. (“CTR”) are moving toward a proposed business combination that would create a public company focused on one of the most ambitious geothermal and critical minerals developments in the United States. The combined entity is expected to trade on Nasdaq under the pro forma ticker CTRH, reflecting a platform built around clean baseload power, lithium recovery, and broader critical minerals production. The investor presentation dated August 2026 frames the transaction around CTR’s Hell’s Kitchen project in Imperial County, California, which is presented as a strategically positioned resource opportunity with energy, minerals, infrastructure, and permitting advantages.   At the center of the presentation is a clear message: this is not just a power project, and it is not j...
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Deep Geothermal Drilling Preparation for Renewable District Heating

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Deep Drilling Preparation for Geothermal Energy: The Erdwärme Breisgau Project The Erdwärme Breisgau geothermal project has received approval for its next phase, allowing Badenova and Herrenknecht to begin preparing a deep-drilling site near Hartheim in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The partners plan to invest approximately €60 million to explore a geothermal reservoir located around 3,200 metres underground and develop a heating plant for regional district heating.  Why Deep Drilling Matters for Geothermal Heating Deep geothermal energy can provide a stable, renewable source of heat for district-heating networks. Unlike solar and wind power, which depend on weather conditions, geothermal heating can operate continuously when the underground reservoir and surface infrastructure are technically and economically viable. The Erdwärme Breisgau project is designed to investigate a hot-water reservoir beneath the Hartheim area. The plan involves drilling two directional wells: one producti...
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Sage Geosystems SMECI Facility Validates Scalable EGS Power Model

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Sage Geosystems Places SMECI Facility in Service, Validating a Scalable EGS Model Sage Geosystems has moved a step closer to proving that enhanced geothermal systems can be engineered for repeatable, commercial performance. The company announced that its SMECI facility in South Texas has been placed in service, and the results from more than 120 days of operating data are being presented as a validation point for its proprietary EGS approach. For a sector that has long struggled with subsurface unpredictability, water losses, and limited scalability, that is a meaningful milestone. What makes this announcement stand out is not simply that the facility is operating, but what Sage says the operating campaign demonstrated. The company says the project produced consistent reservoir behavior, low water losses, and performance that matched its predictive modeling. In geothermal development, those are the kinds of results that can move a project from promising to financeable. If the claim...
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AFK Geothermie launches €65M dublette drilling to heat 1,200 homes

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
AFK Geothermie launches second dublette drilling in Aschheim , pathway to 1,200 geothermal heat connections Summary AFK Geothermie has begun preparing the drill site for a second deep geothermal dublette near Aschheim. Drilling is scheduled to start in November at depths up to 2,600 meters. The project aims to supply up to 1,200 residential connections in Aschheim, Feldkirchen and Kirchheim with district heating from January 2028, expanding an established field first tapped in 2008. Total investment is around €65 million, combining public grants, municipal contributions, company equity and long-term loans. Why this matters now The AFK project is a practical example of how municipal-scale geothermal systems move from demonstration to scale-up. As European policymakers push for decarbonized heating, replicable, well-financed geothermal projects that integrate with existing district heating networks are becoming critical. The Aschheim dublette highlights common technical, financial and ...
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Cornish Lithium Secures £7.2 Million for Geothermal Lithium Project

By Robert Buluma Alphaxioms
Cornish Lithium Secures £7.2 Million UK Government Funding for Cross Lanes Geothermal Lithium Project Cornish Lithium has secured £7.2 million in UK Government grant funding to advance its Cross Lanes Geothermal Lithium Project in Cornwall. The funding will support a £14.5 million programme of drilling, testing and technology demonstration designed to assess whether lithium can be produced commercially from naturally occurring geothermal waters. The project represents an important development for the UK’s critical minerals strategy. It combines geothermal energy, direct lithium extraction and domestic mineral production in a single development model. If successful, Cross Lanes could contribute to the UK’s ambition to establish a secure, lower-carbon supply of lithium for electric vehicle batteries, energy storage systems and other advanced manufacturing applications. The grant will also enable Cornish Lithium to undertake further appraisal drilling at Baldhu, near Truro. Together, th...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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