The first keynote of the day was presented by Prof. Gioia Falcone (Rankine Chair of Energy Engineering, University of Glasgow) on the subject of ‘Medium and deep geothermal: conventional and unconventional solutions and their sustainability’. Prof. Falcone offered some stimulating insights into the meaning of sustainability and also presented a selection of ongoing work from the University of Glasgow Energy and Sustainability research group including numerical modelling of deep closed-loop co-axial boreholes. 

Dr. Zajacs gave the first talk of the Geothermal-DHC session, presenting ‘Decarbonisation of district heating as an opportunity for implementation of geothermal energy.’

Dr. Michopoulos gave the second keynote speaker presentation of the Geothermal-DHC session which focussed on ‘The role of DHC networks in future energy systems’. Talks from both Dr. Michopoulos and Dr. Zajacs helped to set the scene for the role of geothermal energy in future district heating and cooling networks and put in context the geothermal research presented by PhD students in the rest of the session. 

Dr. Maja Turnsek, Associate Professor at University of Maribor, led an engaging workshop to highlight the importance, and challenges, of effective communication in geothermal energy academia. This thought-provoking session saw the PhD students work collaboratively across three communication challenges: Claiming your voice, translating the complexity and being the ambassador. Each group of PhD students was assigned to one of these challenges and presented their proposed solution at the end of the workshop. There was a high level of engagement from the EGPD delegates which resulted in a diverse range of responses to the questions posed. With expert guidance and facilitation from Dr. Turnsek, PhD students could begin to develop a fuller understanding of the key principles needed to effectively communicate their geothermal energy research.