Speakers

Topic of Presentation:

Geothermal Energy

Career history:

Areas of expertise:

Geothermal reservoir engineering

Career history:

Ngugi is currently the General Manager, Business Development at Geothermal Development Company Limited (GDC). GDC is a Kenyan company wholly owned by the Government of Kenya whose principal purpose is to prospect, explore, assess and develop geothermal resources in Kenya. In addition, the Company is mandated to support the Government to raise development funds and to facilitate private sector participation in the geothermal development. He is currently responsible for the development of corporate business plans and strategy, planning and execution of projects, fund raising, environmental management and direct uses of geothermal resources. Previously he worked with Kenya Electricity Generation Company Limited (KenGen) where he was responsible for geothermal planning and for a long time served as a drilling engineer. Together he has over 23 years of experience in geothermal development.

Ngugi is a holder of BSc. in mechanical engineering from the University of Nairobi, a postgraduate diploma in geothermal energy technology from the University of Auckland and a certificate in drilling technology from the United Nations University, Iceland. Currently he is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration majoring in finance at the University of Nairobi.

Ngugi has a great interest in geothermal investment ventures, planning, cost drivers and costing, financing, financial modeling and geothermal development risks. In these areas, he has published a few papers. Under the auspice of the United Nations University Geothermal Training Program, he has participated as an invited lecturer in Kenya, Uganda and El Salvador.

Areas of expertise:

• Drilling Engineering
• Geothermal project planning and fund raising
• Transaction contracting
• Business planning
• Geothermal financial models development

Topic of Presentation:

Motivation of geothermal energy development in Switzerland

Career history:

I obtained a bachelors degree in mathematics, and a PhD in geophysics from the University of Cambridge in 1979. I moved to California for 2 years and worked on developing methods for mapping hydraulic fractures with tiltmeters, before transferring to Columbia University in New York where I stayed for 8 years working on Earth stress and borehole geophysics. In 1989 I moved to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich as a research associate where I have remained, becoming Senior Scientist in 2009. My primary interests have been in geothermics with particular emphasis in EGS, rock stress and geomechanics, and hydrogeology.

Areas of expertise:

Geothermics, EGS, rock stress and geomechanics, coupled hydro-mechanical problems in engineering geology

Topic of Presentation:

Development of supercritical geothermal resources in Japan

Career history:

Hiroshi Asanuma is a team leader of geothermal team in Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (FREA).
He received a PhD degree in E.E. from Tohoku University, Japan in 1992. From 1992 to 2013, he worked in Tohoku University as a research associate and associate professor mainly in Graduate School of Environmental Studies.
Since 2013, he moved to National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology. He is a member of SEG, SPWLA, SSA, and AGU. His current interests are in development of technologies to increase geothermal power generation in Japan.

Areas of expertise:

Geothermal development engineering, Engineering seismology, Geophysics

Topic of Presentation:

Iceland Deep Drilling Project – IDDP Lessons learned and future prospects

Career history:

• Dr. Guðmundur Ómar Friðleifsson has 40 year experience in dealing with research and exploitation of high and low temperature geothermal systems. He received his BSc and BSc hon in Geology 1975 and 1976 from University of Iceland, PhD degree in Geology in 1983 at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
• From 1975 he worked at Orkustofnun (National Energy Authority of Iceland), the Geothermal and Geoscience Division (1975-2003), and then at ISOR (Iceland GeoSurvey) (2003-2007). Since 2007 he became the Chief Geologist at the HS Orka energy company.
• Along with his main role Guðmundur has been teaching borehole and exploration geology at the United Nation University – Geothermal Training Programme (UNU-GTP) since 1981, and served as a Study Board member in Exploration Geology from 2006-2012.
• Since 1999, has been leading the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP), being one of the founder of the project, its Principal Investigator and project manager, coordinator and spokesman. He is an author and co-author of tenths of scientific papers and extended conference abstracts and over two hundred reports of various lengths on geothermal exploration and utilization.

Areas of expertise:

Exploration Geology, secondary hydrothermal mineralogy, borehole geology, reservoir geology.