December 2019 - NZGA Newsletter

CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

In this final newsletter of 2019, I would like to take the opportunity to wish all our members and your families a very happy Christmas and a successful New Year.

At our Annual General Meeting held on 27 November 2019 in Auckland the budget to support our 2020 programme was approved. This budget makes provision to support the New Zealand presence at the World Geothermal Congress in Iceland in April 2020 through co-ordination of the New Zealand Pavilion. Another key area that the NZGA Board wishes to progress in 2020 is improving communications with our members and key stakeholders. We have increased our communications budget to $15,000 to fund a part-time resource to assist with several information activities including social media posts, the NZGA newsletter, and the web site, plus branding initiatives.

It is important that I acknowledge our retiring NZGA Board members Katherine, Andrew Rae and John Burnell and thank them for their fantastic contribution to the Board and New Zealand’s geothermal community. We welcome new Board members Leighton Taylor, Jacqui Nelson and Greg Bignall.

The Board will begin the New Year with a vision and strategy session as part of our first meeting for the 2020 year. It has been some time since we have done this and with increasing concerns with global warming and the vital part that geothermal energy has to play as a solution to this predicament, we feel it is time to take stock and ensure we are appropriately focused on the tasks at hand.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Malcolm Grant who was made a life member of the Association at the New Zealand Geothermal Workshop Dinner in November 2019. Malcom has made a significant contribution to the New Zealand geothermal sector and this honour is well deserved.

I very much look forward to seeing many of in Iceland in April 2020 – WGC2020 is shaping up to be a very exciting event and the New Zealand presence will be substantial and well supported around our New Zealand Pavilion initiative and other planned events.

Stephen Daysh, NZGA President

NOTIFICATIONS

World Geothermal Conference 2020 Update

The NZ Geothermal Association has secured a premium location at the World Geothermal Congress in Iceland in 2020.

We are going to be positioned in the main thoroughfare with a strong presence, with a dedicated NZ pavilion alongside GNS & Seequent (creating a very high-profile and well-integrated NZ section of the overall congress). This is a draft mockup of what the NZ pavilion might look like:

The image backdrop is printed on vinyl and lit up by light boxes, and the images & branding are interchangeable.

For participation on the booth we are offering the following packages to ensure that 'NZ Inc' is well represented, as well as each individual organisation who is attending:

Tier 1 Package - $7,000:

2 x registrations to WGC (already valued at $1,500 each)
The ability to interchange the 'NZ Inc' backdrop to be your organisation's banner
The ability to book the booth for your own company's meeting time on the booth, effectively making the booth your own for certain periods of the week
Access to two dedicated hosts to book appointments, and create connections in your absence from the stand
Branding and corporate representation on the booth, with ability for photos / videos / powerpoint presentations to be on display, as well as logo representation

Tier 2 Package - $3,000:

1 x registration to WGC (valued at $1,500 each)
Access to two dedicated hosts to book appointments, and create connections in your absence from the stand
Branding and corporate representation on the booth, with ability for photos / videos / powerpoint presentations to be on display, as well as logo representation

We only have 6 x Tier 1 packages, and 10 x Tier 2 packages.

Interest for the Tier 1 packages have been high, so if you are looking to use funds from 2019's budget or wanting to ensure you don't miss out then please get in touch with us soon, as we are likely to sell out of these shortly.

We can be reached at [email protected], or 0221649275.

SPOTLIGHT STORIES

World Geothermal Generation by Tectonic Region
Generation statistics over the past 13 years illustrate the dominance of convergent tectonic regimes for high temperature geothermal development.

In particular, subduction of the Pacific and Indian Oceans contributed over 70% of the total geothermal generation in 2018. This has dropped from 85% in 2005 due to robust growth in the Trans-Alpine Belt and East African Rifts. The Atlantic (rift and convergent zones) remains under represented among the world’s oceanic margins. The emergence of geothermal projects in the Caribbean subduction region should increase the market share of the Atlantic in coming years.

Continental, sedimentary basin related geothermal projects (mostly in Europe) contribute less than 1% of total geothermal generation but will become increasingly important in direct use.

WHATS BEEN HAPPENING

New Zealand Geothermal Workshop

The 2019 NZ Geothermal Workshop was hosted at the University of Auckland November 25 to 27. Over 265 people attended the conference which included 4 international keynote speakers - Katherine Young (NREL), Novi Ganefianto (Supreme Energy), Sara Montomoli (ENEL Green Power), Pat Walsh (Ormat). A highlight of the week was that the IGA board meeting followed the workshop and many IGA board members attended the workshop. The NZGA award for best student paper at NZGW this year went to Nona Taute for “An Holistic Approach to Impact Assessment: Revitalizing the Presence of Māori Values for Cultural Sustainability in Geothermal Development” with co-authors Kepa Morgan, Jason Ingham, Rosalind Archer and Tūmanako Fa’aui. The NZGW team are grateful to the large cast of NZ industry sponsors who make the event possible. The event team will take a break from event planning for a few weeks but will start planning the 2020 NZGW in the New Year and will announce the date and venue soon.

IGA Board meeting in Auckland

The University of Auckland (Dr. Sadiq J. Zarrouk) with the support of the New Zealand Geothermal Association (NZGA) and the New Zealand geothermal industry (Contact Energy, MBCentury and GNS) hosted the International Geothermal Association (IGA) 71st Board of Directors (BoD) meeting, AGM and the IGA-BoD field trip from the 28th till the 30th of November following the 41st New Zealand Geothermal Workshop.

During the IGA-BoD meeting several topics was discussed including:

The preparations for the World Geothermal Congress (WGC) in Reykjavik 26 April-2 May, 2020.
The latest challenges facing the industry and the IGA.

After a full day candidate countries presentation and BoD discussions, China was selected to host the next WGC-2023 in Beijing.

Top Energy new Power station at Ngawha

A 90-tonne, 20.5 m heat exchanger stopped traffic on its way to the new Power Station expansion at Ngawha in December. The Heat exchanger was pulled by two trucks and pushed by a third. The new power station is due to start producing electricity in August 2020.

A blessing of the new control room the Ngāwhā expansion was recently undertaken by Ngati Rangi.

SUMMARY OF SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS:

The association maintains three social media channels on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. We use these channels to communicate updates and engage with our members and the wider community that might be interested in hearing from us and engaging with us on social media.