Oil & Gas Players Entering Geothermal

For the second year in a row, ZeGen Energy Founder and Director, Kirsten Pasturel, played an active role in the PIVOT Conference, supported by the U.S. Office of energy efficiency and renewable energy and co-hosted by the University of Texas at Austin and Project InnerSpace. This year’s conference theme was “From Hydrocarbons to Heat,” and saw Kirsten chairing a panel discussion with oil and gas industry players to discuss how they are leading their businesses into the geothermal space.

Our takeaways from the discussion were:

• People who are passionate about geothermal are installed in strategic positions throughout the oil and gas sector.

• Geothermal is approaching a scale that is attractive to oil and gas players. 

• Oil and gas players understand what they can bring to projects in the form of transferrable skills and competencies. 

• Smaller companies are needed in the space to innovate, this happens more often out-with multinationals. 

• The oil and gas sector has been active in geothermal for a long time. One of the panelists, Mike, was drilling geothermal wells almost 40 years ago. 

 Lots more to discuss and explore in this space! We’re already looking forward to next year’s conference.