Geothermal Country update of Argentina: 2015-2020.

AGOSTINA CHIODI; FILIPOVICH RUBÉN; ESTEBAN C.; PESCE A.; STEFANINI V

Congreso; World Geothermal Congress 2020; 2020

During the last years, there has been a renewed interest for developing new energy sources in Argentina, resulting in a significant change into the power generation matrix. Through the Program of Electricity Supply from Renewable Sources (RenovAr), the national government awarded 147 projects equivalent to 4466.5 MW of installed capacity in different technologies (wind, solar, biomass, biogas and small-scale hydroelectric plants). However, geothermal energy had not been included in the technologies to be tendered. Within this framework, the government is working to tender the first Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) of geothermal Energy for the Copahue Geothermal Project, the only one at feasibility stage at national level. In this way, it is intended to encourage the development of other geothermal projects at pre-feasibility stage and promote the development of the geothermal energy in Argentina. It is estimated that Argentina has a potential of more than 1000 MW for electric power generation from its geothermal resources. In this sense, the most interesting high-temperature geothermal systems in Argentina are located in the western sector (Central and Southern Volcanic Zones of the Andes), associated with the Neogene-Holocene volcanic arc. In this context, there are five projects oriented to electric power generation which are the most developed: Copahue (Neuquén), Domuyo (Neuquén), Tuzgle (Jujuy), Tocomar (Salta) and Los Despoblados (San Juan) and others that are in the initial exploration stage: Volcán Socompa (Salta), Cuenca Tucumán-Santiago del Estero, Caldera del Cerro Blanco (Catamarca), Volcán Peteroa (Mendoza) and Laguna del Maule (Mendoza).Regarding to direct uses, it is continuous working on the construction of balneology projects associated with deep-seated hydrothermal systems in sedimentary basins. These projects are located mainly in the central and eastern regions of the Argentina. On the other hand the geothermal heats pumps (GHP) projects have been a remarkable development in the last years.Finally, The National Council for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET) and the Geological and Mining Survey of Argentina (SEGEMAR) are the main organizations that promotes the R + D + I of geothermal resources in Argentina, through the financing of research projects oriented to produce the necessary base of knowledge for further accurate assessment of the geothermal potential and ultimately the implementation of the geothermal resource as a viable energy alternative. In this sense, recent investigations has provided new information that has allowed to improve the state of knowledge of the geothermal resource at the national level.