Kenya: Three New National Entities to Manage and Regulate Energy Resources

Kenya's energy sector gets three new agencies (The East African)

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday assented to three key bills including Energy Bill 2017, which establishes three national entities to manage and regulate Kenya's energy resources.

The law establishes three new agencies: 

• Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority, 
• Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation, and 
• Nuclear Power and Energy Agency.

The Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority will regulate generation, importation, exportation, transmission, distribution, supply and use of electrical energy with the exception of the licensing of nuclear facilities. It will also regulate importation, refining, exportation, transportation, storage and sale of petroleum and petroleum products with the exception of crude oil, as well as manage production, conversion, distribution, supply, marketing and use of renewable energy.

The Rural Electrification and Renewable Energy Corporation will undertake tasks including overseeing the implementation of the Rural Electrification Programme, managing the Rural Electrification Programme Fund and sourcing for additional funds for the programme and renewable energy.

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USA, California: Streamlining the Clean Energy Development Pipeline

State Investments In Clean Energy and Transportation Technology (California Senate Office of Research)

This report describes the state�s investments in clean energy and transportation technology development through 40 existing financial incentive programs.

Budgetary and other information on the programs reviewed in the report is presented in the appendix. The report also discusses the pipeline of clean technology development, including challenges faced at each phase.

Finally, the report presents what we believe are important considerations for the Legislature.

To further assess the issues, the Legislature may consider creating an expert panel to address balancing investment levels along the pipeline, reducing redundancies, and identifying strategies to leverage private investment.

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Indonesia: Consultant Needed as International Procurement Specialist for Dieng and Patuha Geothermal Projects

Indonesia Geothermal Power Generation Project - International Procurement Specialist - Asian Development Bank (ADB)

Deadline for Submissions: 15 March
Length of  assignment: Seven months

Asian Development Bank (ADB) will engage several consultants to provide technical support to the state-owned entity charged with geothermal power plant development, Geo Dipa Energi (GDE), and provide key inputs for ADB due diligence for the proposed expansion of existing geothermal power plants in Dieng and Patuha.

A comprehensive feasibility study to assess the technical aspects and costings of the field expansions at Dieng and Patuha will be carried out by GDE.

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Netherlands: Exploration for Geothermal Resources Could be Tailor-Made for Oil Firms

Big oil rises to Dutch geothermal challenge (Petroleum Economist)

The quest for clean energy to fill the gap left by declining gas production could be tailor-made for oil firms

Geothermal is already a popular source of cheap, clean heating for the Netherlands' large tomato and flower-growing industry, pumping hot water from up to 4km (2.5 miles) below ground to serve greenhouses via heat networks. But now geothermal is starting to go mainstream, echoing increasing interest in the sector in neighbouring France and Germany.

Firms such as Shell, France's Engie and Canadian independent Vermilion Energy have submitted plans for large geothermal heat projects in the Netherlands in recent months. Official data shows more than 30 applications were received for geothermal permits across 2017 and 2018, compared to fewer than 10 in total over the previous seven years.

One of the stand-out elements of the regime is that the government helps companies cover the risk of exploration, removing a key obstacle that often stands in the way of tapping fresh energy resources. The Dutch government has already committed to continuing this regime and to help the industry mature, for example by running innovation programmes to improve technological know-how.

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Russia: Four Day Geothermal Energy Conference in Kamchatka

3rd International Geothermal Conference GEOHEAT

3-6 September, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russian Federation

Organized by the Research Geotechnological Center of Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.

The events will contribute to the solution of a number of fundamental problems: the development of theoretical issues of geothermics and heat flow of the Earth; establishment of new features of thermophysical processes in the geothermal water field development with supercritical thermodynamic parameters; the establishment of geothermal parameters of the Earth crust on basis of advanced experimental technologies (continuous thermal core logging technology, instruments for thermal property measurements at formation conditions, accounting of rocks heterogeneity, as well as micro- and macro-anisotropy), and on this basis the geothermal resources revaluation, including geothermal resources maps.

The planned event will be of great importance for the development of the above directions. Since not only representatives of academic institutions, universities and research laboratories, but also representatives of the geothermal industry, private geothermal research companies and resource developers who will be present at the conference among the participants and speakers, the scientific results will be able to find practical application. First Announcement (PDF)........

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Poland: Country Has Large Geothermal Energy Resources

Time to let off steam: expert claims Poland�s geothermal capacity equals that of its coal reserves (The First News)

The amount of energy in Polish geothermal resources � water in hot rocks � is equivalent to the energy capacity of national reserves of black and brown coal, according to the president of  Stowarzyszenie Zr�wnowazony Rozw�j Geotermia W Polsce Im. Sw. Kr�lowej Jadwigi -  the Association for Sustainable Development of geothermal in Poland, Saint Queen Jadwiga, Dr Marek Kazmierczak.

Dr Kazmierczak presented data according to which Poland�s energy resources in geothermal water, located at a depth of three kilometres, exceed national energy use by more than 120 times. He said that showed the scale to which these renewable resources could be used. The available geothermal waters exist in many regions of Poland � mostly in a band running diagonally through the middle of the country, from Szczecin to Rzesz�w.

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Netherlands: One Day Conference on Geothermal District Heating is Tomorrow

DAP Symposium 2019 (TU Delft)

Urban Heating: Risks & Rewards - Integrating cities with geothermal energy

12 March, 2019, Delft, Netherlands

This year�s symposium will focus on the challenges and opportunities of supplying urban areas with geothermal energy.

Currently, in The Netherlands, there exist several successful geothermal projects that are producing heat for greenhouses located in rural areas. With the allocation of a significant subsidy towards TU Delft in 2017, and the recent greenlight from the university board, the TU campus can and will be a pioneering project in the area of �urban geothermal heating�.

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