You're Invited: Does Geothermal Have the Heat to Go Mainstream? | With Michael O’Connor | Nov 17 at 1:30pm ET
An episode on Geothermal? On EvC?
We’re finally doing it: an episode on geothermal, with someone who works on getting it built.
Michael O’Connor, Director of the Mountain West Geothermal Consortium, joins us to talk about what geothermal is (power, heat and other uses), how traditional and enhanced geothermal differ, and where the global build-out stands today.
We'll discuss:
- What's new? What's been figured out, why interest in geothermal is back, and whether the renewed attention is justified. Is there a real reason it could work now?
- What stands in the way? The barriers to scaling geothermal from a promising idea to real operating capacity.
- Where do Alberta and Canada fit? What has happened so far to grow the industry here, and what would need to change.
Register today and join the live webinar on November, 1:30pm ET / 12:30pm MT / 11:30 am PT.
About Michael O'Connor:
Michael O'Connor is the Director of the Mountain West Geothermal Consortium, a bipartisan, multi-state initiative that designs and implements targeted state-level interventions to accelerate geothermal energy development. He works closely with governors' offices, state energy agencies, utilities, developers, and investors to identify and remove the barriers keeping geothermal projects from reaching commercial scale, particularly around finance, data modernization, and utility offtake. Before starting the Consortium, Michael held several roles within the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Most recently, he led strategic program design for geothermal energy and carbon capture for the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), designing strategy for $3 billion in investment and authoring the Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Next-Generation Geothermal Power report.
Michael received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Geosciences from The University of Texas at Austin, and earned his B.A. in Music and Geology from Amherst College. He resides in San Francisco, California.
About Your Energy vs Climate Co-Hosts:
David Keith is Professor and Founding Faculty Director, Climate Systems Engineering Initiative at the University of Chicago. He is the founder of Carbon Engineering and was formerly a professor at Harvard University and the University of Calgary. He splits his time between Canmore and Chicago.
Sara Hastings-Simon is an Energy Systems scientist studying energy transitions at the intersection of policy, business, and technology. She’s a policy wonk with a love of data. With a PhD in physics from the University of Geneva she has worked at both McKinsey & Company as a management consultant, and the Pembina Institute where she founded Business Renewable Centre Canada. Dr. Hasting-Simon is now a professor at the University of Calgary where she co-leads the Electricity Centre. She has a particular interest in the dynamics of the mid-transition, a concept she co-developed.
Ed Whittingham is a Canadian climate and energy leader with more than 25 years of experience across public policy, clean technology, corporate strategy, and the non-profit sector. He is the former Executive Director of the Pembina Institute and has worked with governments, companies, universities, and civil society organizations in Canada and internationally on complex climate and energy issues. Today, his work focuses on helping build and scale climate stabilizing solutions. He serves as Founding Director of the Advance Carbon Removal Coalition.
Produced by Amit Tandon & Bespoke Podcasts
Energy vs Climate: How climate is changing our energy systems
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