L. Rybach, GEOWATT AG Zurich (rybach@geowatt.ch)
Vice Chairman, IEA GIA Executive Committee

The Geothermal Implementing Agreement (GIA) of the International Energy Agency (IEA) provides the umbrella for a world-wide cooperative programme on geothermal research and technology. The IEA GIA aims to promote the sustainable utilization of geothermal energy by improving existing technologies, by developing new technologies to render usable the vast and widespread global geothermal resources, by facilitating the transfer of know-how, by providing high quality information and by widely communicating geothermal energy’s strategic, economic and environmental benefits. The IEA GIA started its third 5-year term of operation in 2007. 

The GIA project activities are defined and organized in Annexes, the specific R&D activities as Tasks. With respect to EGS there are specific R&D activities, termed in the Annexes as Tasks:
Annex  I - Environmental Impacts of Geothermal Energy Development
Task D: Seismic Risk of Fluid Injection into EGS (Task Leaders: R. Baria and D. Wyborn)
Annex III - Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) – Annex Leader: R. Baria
Task A: Economic modelling (completed)
Task B: Application of Conventional Geothermal Technology to EGS (Task Leader: J. Renner)
Task C:  Data Acquisition and Processing (Task Leader.: T. Mégel)
Task D:  Reservoir Evaluation (Task Leader: D. Wyborn)
Task E:  Field Studies of EGS Reservoir Performance (Task Leaders: P. Rose, A. Genter)
Activities relevant for EGS and ENGINE are also conducted in Annex VII: Advanced Geothermal Drilling.

The IEA GIA activities are governed by an Executive Committee (ExCo). At two ExCo meetings annually the GIA Participants (presently 11 countries, the EC, and 3 industrial sponsors) regularly report about their activities, so e.g. the EC about the Soultz project. For EGS the focus is on the flourishing scene in Australia, where 6 companies are listed in the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), 25 companies hold exploration rights over 170 licences, ranging in size from 120 to 12’000 km2. 

Efficient ties between ENGINE and the IEA GIA have been established in 2006: Patrick Ledru is Member of the ExCo. Results and products of IEA GIA are accessible through its website www.iea-gia.org. Here the especially the White Book and the Protocol about EGS-induced seismicity, the Seismic Risk Study of the Cooper Basin, and the EGS handbook “Project Management Decision Assistant (PMDA)” can be mentioned.

Vilnius, Lithuania