2026 Geothermal Rising Conference Technical Program Topic Descriptions

• Above-Ground Challenges & Opportunities: In this session, we will explore, methods to mitigate environmental concerns, integration with power grids, health and safety, community engagement, as well as construction and engineering issues.
• AI and Machine Learning: AI and machine learning is rapidly becoming more advanced and useful to the geothermal industry. These recent advancements create new opportunities for innovation and system optimizations to increase the probability of exploration and development success while helping to drive down the overall cost of geothermal energy. This session will highlight recent improvements and applications of AI and machine learning in the geothermal industry.
• Closed Loop Geothermal Systems: Closed loop geothermal systems, also called Advanced Geothermal Systems (AGS) can dramatically scale and expand the scope of geothermal for heat and power. This session covers applications, technologies, deployments, and updates related to closed loop geothermal systems.
• Critical Minerals: This session will examine mineral resource potential and the extraction and processing of minerals, such as lithium, from geothermal areas. The session will feature research and case studies focused on process challenges, extraction methods, characterization of critical minerals in geothermal brines, improved processes, and environmental aspects of extraction procedures.
• Drilling: This session will cover all aspects of geothermal drilling. Topics include fluids, bits, circulation, rate of penetration, scaling, corrosion, additives, directional drilling, environmental concerns, economics and more.
• Economics: Overcoming technical and funding hurdles is critical for any geothermal project. What are some of the variables that can help reduce risk and optimize projects for financial success? This session covers numerous aspects of planning, operations and funding that help make geothermal successful for various applications.
• Energy Conversion/Utilization: Geothermal resources and energy storage have the potential to economically provide green and dispatchable power. This topic covers power plant utilization and technology, conversion of thermal energy to electrical power, direct use utilization of thermal energy, providing power or heat to users/grid level utilities, and more.
• Enhanced Geothermal Systems: Abundant geothermal energy is under our feet everywhere, but its extraction needs sufficiently efficient and economic engineered solutions. The session will solicit new approaches in design, innovation, and technology for the creation of Enhanced or Engineered Geothermal Systems.
• Geochemistry: Geochemical characterization of geothermal systems is critical for defining reservoir characteristics, estimating resource temperatures, designing facilities, and monitoring assets. This topic covers all geochemistry submissions including exploration, monitoring existing fields, scale issues and solutions, etc.
• Geology: This session will explore case studies and advances in geological investigations related to geothermal. This topic will cover a broad spectrum of work including geologic mapping, characterizations of well geology, geothermal exploration, structural and stress evaluations, conceptual modeling, and others.
• Geophysics: This session will cover geophysical data acquisition, modeling, inversion, and interpretation related to geothermal. This includes geothermal exploration, resource assessment and monitoring of operating geothermal fields.
• Hybrid Systems: Hybrid geothermal systems combine geothermal energy with other energy technologies to improve efficiency, flexibility, and overall system performance. This session will explore the design, operation, and integration of hybrid geothermal systems, including combinations with solar, energy storage, hydrogen production, direct-use applications, and other emerging technologies. Topics may also include system optimization, operational strategies, and case studies demonstrating hybrid geothermal deployments.
• Leveraging Oil & Gas: Repurposing inactive wells into geothermal and training the existing workforce are valuable propositions in the energy transition. This session will focus on repurposing old and gas wells into either direct geothermal use or electricity. Additional focus will be on workforce transition, techno-economical and operational aspects of repurposing technology. We will explore learnings that have helped the development of O&G and how they can help benefit and advance geothermal development.
• Logging, Monitoring & Instrumentation: Geothermal wells operate under extreme temperature and chemical conditions that place unique demands on downhole logging tools, monitoring systems, and measurement technologies. This session will explore advances in instrumentation used to characterize and monitor geothermal systems during drilling, completion, and production. Topics may include high-temperature logging tools, fiber-optic and distributed sensing technologies, reservoir monitoring techniques, wellbore diagnostics, and other innovations that improve data quality and operational control in geothermal wells and reservoirs.
• Low-Temperature/Direct Use: This session will explore the latest advancements in geothermal district and direct use applications. The session will cover a broad spectrum of topics, such as the assessment of geothermal potential for heating applications, the repurposing of plugged and abandoned oil wells for geothermal direct use, and the techno-economic analysis of geothermal deep direct-use application for a district heating, and thermal energy network applications. Additionally, the session will delve into the use of heat pumps and geothermal direct use heating in various industries.
• Permitting & Policy: Permitting and policy frameworks play a critical role in enabling geothermal exploration and development. This session will examine regulatory processes, permitting challenges, and policy developments affecting geothermal projects. Topics may include federal, state, and local permitting pathways, environmental review processes, land access, regulatory innovations, and policy initiatives aimed at accelerating geothermal deployment while ensuring responsible resource management.
• Regional Updates: As the United States and international geothermal communities continue to grow, keeping up to date on global geothermal projects, activities and changes becomes increasingly important. This session will focus on country and regional updates, new projects, regulatory and legislative amendments, and activities related to the global geothermal community.
• Reservoir/Production: Reservoir engineering and modeling is a critical component to resource assessments and field management. This session will cover all topics of reservoir engineering, modeling, management, well testing, and the effects on production of geothermal fluids.
• Special Session: Texas Imperative of Geothermal Resources: As the State Geological Survey of Texas, Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas at Austin embarked on the Texas Imperative initiative launched in 2025. The Texas Imperative is a set of focused multi-disciplinary studies of vital state resources including geothermal energy, water, critical minerals, and naturally occurring helium and hydrogen. The goal of the Texas Imperative is to inform state and local leaders, state agencies, industry, and the public about the location, quantity, and potential economic and environmental impact of these resources. As a part of the geothermal initiative, Bureau of Economic Geology completed detailed geothermal resource mapping, quantification, and assessment of the Gulf Coast and East Texas. The study yielded updated high-resolution subsurface temperature and formation maps, including play fairway maps for conventional and next-generation technologies, such as Enhanced Geothermal Systems, Closed-loop Systems, Reservoir Thermal Energy Storage, and co-production of hydrocarbons and minerals. Selected maps are being made publicly available through a dedicated portal. The derived maps and analyses are expected to minimize risk in the subsurface and facilitate geothermal project development in Texas at scale. The technical theme will feature papers focusing on various aspects of Texas Imperative-related geothermal mapping and resource assessment, including but not limited to structure and stratigraphy, temperature, petrophysics, geomechanics, and fluid and dissolved solid production (oil, gas, water, lithium, etc.).
• Superhot Rock: Superhot geothermal energy can be produced from natural or engineered reservoirs that maintain supercritical conditions in the subsurface. Proposed completion methods and technologies that could unlock hydrothermal or petrothermal superhot geothermal plays are conventional, engineered, closed loop geothermal, and hybrid. These technologies each play to different strengths, and, with adequate global investment, they offer innovative ways to extract high-energy-density, low-carbon, always available energy. By driving down costs and making large-scale geothermal power available nearly anywhere, Superhot Rock energy has the potential to disrupt and revolutionize the energy system.
• Tribal Communities: Geothermal exploration and development is expanding. As part of these processes, it is imperative to engage with tribal communities that call these lands their home. This session welcomes all topics related to the intersection of geothermal and tribal communities, including community engagement, effects of geothermal development on tribal lands, case studies and accounts by tribal community members, and more.
• Well Construction & Completion: This session will focus on advanced materials and technologies providing well integrity, during well construction, completions, repairs and well monitoring throughout the well life cycle. These may include but are not limited to new cementitious technologies for EGS and ultra-high temperature applications in super-hot geothermal wells; heat pump or hot rock technologies where materials are subjected to constant thermal shock conditions; materials for high temperature electronic components; high-temperature corrosion-resistant metal, coatings, and elastomeric materials; field application of these and other relevant technologies and methods providing well integrity under geothermal environments. The session will welcome all geothermal material research, research and development work focused on new well integrity solutions, and field tests related to geothermal well durability.
• Workforce Success: Geothermal energy is an industry that is rapidly expanding and holds immense potential for job creation and economic growth. In this session, we will explore geothermal education and training methodologies, local initiatives, case studies and the impact of workforce transition and recruitment practices in the field of geothermal technologies.

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