Stanford Geothermal hosts the 51st Geothermal Workshop
In its 51st year, Stanford Geothermal Workshop continues to serve as a cornerstone of the industry
The Stanford Energy Science & Engineering Department hosted the 51st Annual Geothermal Workshop February 9-11, 2026 at the beautiful Frances C. Arrillaga Alumni Center on Stanford University’s main campus.
The workshop remains one of the top global geothermal gatherings for scientists, engineers, and policymakers in the field and has been instrumental to the translation of research into scalable technology and policy solutions, by providing a forum for the exchange of ideas, collaboration, and the development of geothermal resources.
To date, in addition to 51 Workshops, the Stanford Geothermal Program has produced 136 outstanding graduates who have enjoyed careers in geothermal technology companies, academia, government, and many other related fields.
One of the program’s graduates who is the Co-Founder and CTO of Fervo Energy, Jack Norbeck, provided a keynote address during this year’s event, announcing the results of an appraisal drilling campaign where the company confirmed a new EGS sweet spot, with ultra-hot resource temperatures above 555 F (290 C). Fervo’s new greenfield site has multiple gigawatts of resource potential, and highlighted the value of AI-enabled drilling and exploration techniques in identifying and developing projects with different resource quality.
The workshop had the honor of hosting keynote addresses from Kyle Haustveit, the Assistant Secretary of Energy in the Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office (HGEO), who opened the Workshop with a presentation encouraging vision for geothermal energy in the US and Kristie McLin, the new Principal Investigator of the Utah FORGE experimental EGS project (managed by the University of Utah), who gave a summary of activities at Utah FORGE, capturing the history of development and including the results of many research projects – many of which were discussed in greater detail in other papers included in the Workshop.
The event covered diverse topics including:
- Case Studies: reservoir response to production, effects of injection, scaling characteristics
- Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS): current and future activities
- Engineering Techniques: reservoir simulation, empirical methods, well tests, tracers
- Field Management: strategies for exploitation, injection, scale inhibition
- Exploration: geophysics, geochemistry, geology, heat flow studies, outflows
- Drilling and Well Bore Flows: well stimulation, bore flow modeling, hydro-fracturing, scaling
- Low Enthalpy Systems: applications of heat pumps, hot dry rock technology
- Geosciences: application of geophysics, geochemistry, thermodynamics and fluid mechanics.
This year, 204 written papers were submitted with 188 presentations happening over the course of three days. Participants were also eligible for Continuing Education Units (CEU).
This year’s event was the largest to date, with 450 in-person, and a daily average of 100 remote participants, representing 26 countries. The result of such overwhelming interest in the conference led to the second year offering an option for online participation. Clocking 5,373 engagement minutes per day online, the workshop continues to evolve and expand into new territories and formats. Next year’s event promises to be even bigger and even better.
Professor Roland Horne who is an absolute legend in the field, remains at the helm of the program but he acknowledges that he does not carry out an event of this magnitude alone. With the help of 14 current students (who ran the computer displays, zoom sessions and presentation loading), alumni, sponsors, and his administrative team, the workshop was (once again) a success.
Professor Horne provided a history of the workshop, highlighting the collective achievements of several generations of Stanford Geothermal Workshop participants, “The Stanford Geothermal Program was pleased to host the Stanford Geothermal Workshop in its 51st year. The Workshop has grown substantially from its early days in the 1970s when 60-70 people attended and almost all made presentations about their hopes and dreams for geothermal, through the 1980s and 1990s where people came and discussed their now-successful projects, and the 2000s and 2010s where geothermal became global in reach and discussion. Since 2010 a focus has been on the next stage for geothermal, with an emphasis, and a hope, for Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). Since 2022, with FORGE and Fervo opening the door, we are now hearing presentations of new ideas and new technologies that are delivering EGS projects at scale. We welcomed 450 attendees in person to the campus venue, and another 100 attending remotely online.”
Congratulations to the Stanford Geothermal Program for another successful workshop!
Acknowledgements
Keynote Speakers:
- Kyle Haustveit - Assistant Secretary of Energy, Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office (HGEO)
- Kristie McLin - Principal Investigator of the Utah FORGE experimental EGS project manahed by the University of Utah
- Jack Norbeck - Co-Founder & CTO, Fervo Energy
Sponsors:
Student Leaders:
- Sarah Sausan
- Kongphop Wongpattananukul
Administrative Team:
- Jorgina Cruz
- Lyrissa Roman
- With help from staff members of the Department of Energy Science and Engineering and the Precourt Institute for Energy
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