The impact and awareness of geothermal as a renewal heat and power resource is growing globally. According to the 2019 EGEC geothermal market report, geothermal development has had a lower growth than expected for the last decade, due to both legislative, technological, and business challenges. However, the EGEC president Miklos Antics expects the current decade to be the geothermal decade and CGER is experiencing an increasing number of requests for information on geothermal activities and potential in Norway.
Traditional geothermal heat pumps and geothermal heat storage will remain central in Norwegian exploitation, but new prospects are now being investigated, such as geothermal electricity production on Svalbard, deep sea production, and production through exploitation of oil and gas infrastructure on the continental shelf. Learning from Sweden, currently taking the lead in Europe in the geothermal heat pump sector, and building on competency in geothermal electricity production in Iceland and Finland, will be key to assessing and exploiting potential in Norway. International collaboration, through such programs as Horizon Europe and ERA, will also support further development in Norway. The ongoing revision of the Energy21 strategy under the Norwegian Oil and Energy ministry will determine policy on renewable energy, and therefore be central to geothermal research and innovation in Norway moving ahead.
This year’s conference will focus on creating a better understanding of how geothermal fits into the Norwegian energy budget and economy, thereby contributing to a sustainable development of geothermal as a renewable energy resource in Norway, through a national effort and through collaboration with expertise and knowhow internationally. Virtual networking will be facilitated in the breaks, enabling follow up of talks, following up with existing contacts, and establishing new ones. We aim to do our utmost to make this a relevant and rewarding conference despite the current covid19 situation.
We now also have lined up for statssekretær Lars Andreas Lunde of OED as Keynote speaker and Per Arne Karlsen of the Research Council will be informing us og the current Teothermica and Smart Energy Systems joint call for proposals.
PROGRAM: See full program