Activities 2007 - 2009

As a response to the growing interest in geothermal energy for providing energy for heating or cooling and for generating electric energy, the working group on Applied Geothermics provides the link between researchers working in "classical" (e.g. tectonophysical) heat flow and practitioners in the energy field. It is expected that this way theoretical and practical proficiency available in the heat flow community will find its way to be implemented in geothermal solutions for the global demand for thermal and electric energy. As a first step, a workshop  titled "From Heat Flow to Geothermal Energy" was organized on the occasion of the IASPEI General Assembly in Cape Town, 2009 jointly and with the International Geothermal Association. Venue and topic provide an ideal platform to demonstrate the potential of geothermal energy use not only for developed countries but in particular for developing and emerging economies and, in particular, for the African continent. A further symposium on Geothermal Energy was organized by Commission Chairman, Christoph Clauser and Eva Schill (University of Neuchatel), on the occasion of the "Geo2008", the Annual Meeting of the German Society for Geosciences (http://www.geo2008.de/english/index.php). A third International Conference, “The Earth's Thermal Field and Related Research Methods”, was organized by Commission Vice Chairman, Yuri Popov, and held in Moscow, at the Russian State Geological Prospecting University, on June 18-19, 2008. 73 researchers from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Germany participated in the conference. 60 extended abstracts were collected in this proceedings volume issued to the conference. The conference included five topical sessions (1) Geothermal studies in hydrocarbon and gas-hydrate fields; (2) Studies of geothermal reservoirs; (3) Theoretical modeling of the crustal thermal regime beyond the depth accessible by drilling; (4) Methods and results of geothermal lab and field measurements; (5) Regional geothermal studies. The conference was supported by the IHFC, the Schlumberger company, Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Russian State Geological Prospecting University.