Australia, Iceland, and U.S. Partner for Advancement of Geothermal Technology

Australia, the United States and Iceland have signed the charter of the International Partnership for Geothermal Technology, designed to facilitate shared knowledge and build strategic partnerships for the development of geothermal energy. The framework brings international collaboration on the diffusion of policy and the technical aspects of advanced geothermal systems (EGS) such as deep drilling and geothermal energy conversion.

“Enhanced geothermal systems have the potential to be the world’s only ever-present form of baseload renewable energy,” said Deparment of Energy Acting Assistant Secretary Katharine Fredriksen.

>>Read more about geothermal on the Green Options Network

The partnership will certainly make use of Iceland’s experience with geothermal energy.  The tiny island nation in the North Atlantic gets about one quarter of its electricity from geothermal, in addition to the roughly 90 percent of the energy it needs to heat and provide hot water for buildings. Iceland is also fortunate to have a tremendous hydropower resource, which, put together with geothermal, accounts for 99% of the nation’s electricity generation.

The countries in the partnership will work on the deployment of EGS and deep drilling technologies, exchange best practices and support education and training programs.

Photo: Francesco_G via flickr under a Creative Commons License

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