With the deadline for submissions having closed on May 27, we received more than 150 papers and posters for the GRC Annual Meeting and Expo being held on October 18-21, 2020. These excellent submissions span a wide range of topics of interest to the global geothermal industry and renewable energy policymakers.
With major advances in Europe to use renewable resources for space heating, and the U.S. following closely behind, our hottest topic this year is direct use, district heating and heat pumps. To maintain equilibrium, the Superhot session will explore the other end of the temperature spectrum. We will explore these topics further in a panel discussion of pathways and policies toward the wider application of direct use geothermal heat, and a pre-conference short course on heat pump technology.
A first for this year, more than a dozen papers will discuss the use of machine learning in resource exploration and power plant operation. Exploration in Canada has really taken off in the last few years, and these results will be reported in the special session Geothermal in Canada – Moving Forward! A special session entitled Advanced Materials for Drilling and Completion will primarily explore advances in geothermal cement and cementing technology – does this spell the beginning of the end for the OG Portland cement?
Our special sessions will mix with our essential topics, including exploration and resource assessment, geology, geophysics and reservoir engineering, country updates for the U.S., Uganda, and Turkey, and some interesting finance and policy discussions.
Will Osborn
2020 Technical Program Co-Chair
