Ábel Markó (PhD student, ELTE) participated in the on-site event of the World Geothermal Congress 2020+1, that took place in Reykjavík, Iceland between 24-27 October 2021.

World Geothermal Congress is the world’s largest geothermal exhibition with over 2000 papers, organized by the International Geothermal Association in a hybrid format in 2021. Ábel presented two conference papers in the online version in April and May discussing reinjection problems related to geothermal utilization and the methods to understand and prevent them.

The conference in October was held in the Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre (Reykjavik) covering topics among others of geothermal exploration, utilization, geosciences, technology, environmental impact and business development. Through the presentations the most recent results of the geothermal research and development were introduced.

The highlight event also featured short courses as well as afternoon and evening field trips to natural attractions and geothermal installations of Iceland around the capital. Among others, the newest and biggest geothermal power plant of Iceland was visited and presented together with the Carbfix project. Hellisheidi Geothermal Power plant uses 500 kg/s of geothermal steam at 180°C producing 303 MWe power and 133 MWth heating capacity. CarbFix2 captures and stores H2S and CO2 from the power plant by capturing in water and injecting into subsurface basalt.

At the end of the conference, ‘Reykjavik Declaration’ was issued outlining a set of principles and recommendations for the global geothermal sector to step up its role in the energy transition as a value-driven, clean and affordable energy source serving communities, citizens and the climate.

Thanks to the participation of the online and on-site events, Ábel was able to gather new knowledge about the most recent results of geothermal research and development, gain experience on the applied methods, present his work to experts and receive valuable feedback on that, as well as to further develop his network in the geothermal community.