Department of Earth Sciences
Fall 2023 Seminar Series
Skip Hobbs - Ammonite Resources
Friday November 17th
12:30PM
McHugh 306
About the speaker:
G. Warfield “Skip” Hobbs is Managing Partner of Ammonite Resources Company, a global energy and mineral consulting group that Hobbs founded in 1982. Hobbs received a B.S. Degree in Geology from Yale, and an M.Sc. Degree in Petroleum Geology from Imperial College, London. During the 1970’s he worked as an exploration geologist internationally for Texaco and Amerada Hess. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and is a past-president of the American Geosciences Institute. Skip currently serves on the board of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents in Washington, D.C. He writes and lectures frequently on energy policy, climate change and natural resource sustainability. Hobbs is on the UConn Earth Sciences Department Advisory Board.
Abstract:
The earth’s natural heat flow could theoretically provide an unlimited 24/7 “green” energy resource for power generation and heating. Iceland, for example, which sits on a geologic hot spot with over 200 volcanoes, gets 66% of its primary energy from geothermal, including 26.8% of its electricity and 90% of its residential and greenhouse heating. In the United States, geothermal currently provides 3.69 GW which is only 0.4% of U.S. electricity generation, but there is the potential to provide as much as 8% of capacity according to some experts. The presentation covers the geology of hydrothermal resources, how the resource is identified and developed, technical and economic barriers, and the traditional and new enhanced and closed loop geothermal technologies. The levelized cost and economics of geothermal power compares very favorably with other renewables and fossil fuel resources.
For more information, contact: Christin Donnelly at christin.donnelly@uconn.edu