Description
SDG Short Course II on Geothermal Exploration and Development was held in Kenya during 9-29 November. The first week of the Short Course was devoted to fieldwork in the surroundings of Lake Bogoria in the Rift Valley. On November 15, the course was moved to Lake Naivasha where the participants attended lectures on geoscientific exploration, environmental aspects of geothermal development, drilling, reservoir engineering, utilization, project management and financial considerations. The lectures were also complemented by field trips to the nearby Olkaria geothermal fields, laboratories, power plants and other destinations of interest to students of geothermal development. Three and a half days were committed to project work, where the participants were presented with data from both high and low temperature geothermal fields, with the objective of constructing simple conceptual models and siting wells.
This year, there were 63 participants from 17 countries who took part: Cameroon (2), Comoros (2), Djibouti (2), Democratic Republic of Congo (1), Eritrea (1), Ethiopia (4), Kenya (33), Malawi (2), Morocco (2), Mozambique (1), Nigeria (1), Rwanda (2), Sudan (1), Tanzania (3), Uganda (4), Yemen (1), and Zambia (1). The instructors came from Kenya, several neighboring countries in East Africa, and Iceland.
The course was the 13th event held in cooperation with KenGen and later GDC in support to the UN development goals (MDGs and SDGs). The Workshop for Decision Makers on Geothermal Projects and their Management, held in 2005, was followed up by the Short Courses on Exploration for Geothermal Resources that were held annually over the period 2006-2015 in support of the Millennium Development Goals. The current SDG series was started last year.