Thinkgeoenergy.com
29 October 2013
by Alexander Richter
Interview with Peter Vivian-Neal, CEO of Kalahari GeoEnergy in Zambia
In a local paper, CEO of Kalahari GeoEnergy Limited, Peter Vivian-Neal gave an overview on his company and what the Zambian government can do to accelerate geothermal development in the country.
Peter Vivian-Neal, CEO of Kalahari GeoEnergy Limited, a Zambian based geothermal development company, recently gave an interview in a local paper that we republish here.
The geothermal project of Kalahari GeoEnergy could have a huge impact for the energy sector in Zambia.
What is Kalahari GeoEnergy Limited and who represents the company?
Kalahari GeoEnergy Ltd is a private Zambian registered company whose objective is to explore and, if viable, develop geothermal energy resources to produce electrical power in East and Southern Africa, with current focus Zambia.
The Company’s management have mineral exploration backgrounds and were previously with Kiwara plc and Kalambila Minerals Ltd, the exploration company that discovered the Kalumbila copper and Kawako nickel resources in North Western Province, which are now part of First Quantum’s Trident Project. Peter Vivian-Neal was the Kiwara CEO.
What are the challenges of ge0thermal exploration and development?
Geothermal energy exploration is recognised as being of higher risk than other alternative energies and the exploration is expensive, involving extensive geophysics and drilling.
Globally geothermal exploration has often benefitted from previous hydrocarbon and mineral exploration programmes but this has not been the case in Zambia where exploration has been conducted from first principles with little historic data. In addition there is the issue of skills and equipment; we are utilising American engineering and Australian well control equipment for our current exploration drilling programme.
What should the government do to encourage, accelerate and support activities of electricity generation using geothermal energy?
The most important priorities are security of tenure/investment and a market – in this regard many governments with active alternative energy power producers have a feed-in tariff (often greater than the conventional power tariff) to attract private sector investment and reward the risk of such exploration and development.
Kalahari is currently drilling geothermal exploration wells in the Monze area of the Kafue flats; a better understanding of the Zambian potential for geothermal power will be derived from this work. The project would have a huge impact on the energy market in the country.
The original article is available online here.