News

Short Course VI on Exploration for Geothermal Resources is currently underway at Lake Naivasha in Kenya.  The course is hosted by the UNU-GTP, Geothermal Development Company, Kenya (GDC), and Kenya Electricity and Generating Company, Ltd. (KenGen).  The course, which started on October 27 and will last until November 18, is a continuation of the short course series on geothermal exploration that falls within the framework of UNU-GTP Millennium Short Courses that have been conducted annually in Kenya since 2005. The course is attended by 57 participants from 14 African countries and 1 from Yemen, which shares many geological features with the Rift Valley region.

Rector Konrad Osterwalder of the United Nations University honored the UNU Geothermal Training Programme by a visit on 3 November. The visit was the first scheduled event on the Rector‘s agenda in Iceland, which also included visits to the UNU Fisheries Training Programme, the UNU Land Restoration Training Programme, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant, the University of Iceland and its Gender Equality Studies and Training Programme. The day started with a seminar that included presentations on Iceland‘s strategy for development cooperation, the Icelandic International Development Agency (ICEIDA), and the Icelandic UNU training programmes.  After the speeches and presentations, the Rector reflected on the UNU operations in Iceland and his ideas for future development.

The closing ceremony of the 33rd annual session of the UNU-GTP was held on October 14, 2011. Thirty Fellows from sixteen countries completed the six months training. The Fellows came from Bangladesh (2), China (3), Costa Rica (1), El Salvador (2), Honduras (1), Indonesia (2), Iran (1), Kenya (9), Mexico (1), Mongolia (1), Morocco (1), Nicaragua (1), Rwanda (1), Sri Lanka (1), Tanzania (2), and Uganda (1). They were trained in Reservoir Engineering (8), Geothermal Utilization (7), Environmental Studies (4), Geophysical  Exploration (4), Borehole Geology (3), Chemistry of Thermal Fluids (3), and Drilling Technology (1).

Wednesday the 12th of October the UNU-GTP was honored by the visit of a delegation from the China University of Geosciences in Beijing (CUGB) and Dr. Su Ge, Ambassador of China in Iceland.  The purpose of the visit was to establish ties between CUGB on one hand and the UNU-GTP, the University of Iceland, Iceland GeoSurvey and other Icelandic geothermal entities on the other.  A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Mr. Wang Hongbing, Chairman of the CUGB University Council, and Dr. Ingvar B. Fridleifsson, Director of the UNU-GTP on the willingness of the two sides to collaborate on geothermal research and training in the future.

UNU-GTP and LaGeo will be hosting a "Short Course on Geothermal Development and Geothermal Wells" in El Salvador March 11-17 2012. The course is tentatively planned as a one week course with lectures and exercises. Participation in the short course is by invitation only. It is mainly aimed at professionals from Central America, South America, and the Caribbean with diploma or a degree in earth sciences and engineering, who have been actively involved in geothermal development in their home country, or are potential candidates for that in the near future.  Click here for preliminary progamme and contact information. 

This year, the annual UNU Visiting Lecturer was Dr. Ernst Huenges, who leads the International Geothermal Research Centre at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Potsdam Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ).  Dr. Huenges gave a series of lectures on Enhanced Geothermal Systems. Dr. Huenges is chair of an interdisciplinary working group with engineers and geoscientists and head of the petrophysical laboratories at the GFZ.  He has been involved in a number of scientific deep drilling projects and geothermal projects.  He is a contributing author of the IPCC special report on renewable energies and in 2010, he edited a book on Geothermal Energy Systems.