Saga félagsins

Í október 2009 voru tekin fyrstu skrefin að formun jarðhitaklasa á Íslandi. Fjöldi fyrirtækja studdi við kortlagningu klasa, sem var framkvæmd af prófessor Michael Porter og teymi hans við Harvard Business School, undir forrystu ráðgjafarfyrirtækisins Gekon. Útkoman úr kortlagningarferlinu var tillaga að kjörinni leið til að styrkja innviði jarðhitageirans á Íslandi með því að formgera klasasamstarf. Micheal Porter var jafnframt guðfaðir klasahugmyndafræðanna og eftir hann liggja fjöldi greina og aðgerða og lærdómsrit.

Orkuklasinn, áður Jarðvarmaklasinn er óhagnaðardrifinn almennt félag sem hafði það að leiðarljósi að kynna jarðhita sem samkeppnishæfa lausn á sviði endurnýjanlegrar orku fyrir samfélag og fyrirtæki. Nýting á háhita- og lághitajarðhitaauðlindum skapar verðmæt störf og bætir lífsgæði og félagslega velferð. Fjárfesting í jarðhitalausnum er langtímafjárfesting sem býður upp á grunnorkuframleiðslu og fjölbreyttar tekjustrauma með hliðarlíkanum. Jarðhitaauðlindir eru sjálfbærar og endurnýjanlegar grunnorkulausnir sem bæta orkuöryggi og stuðla að vexti.

The IGCI and its members take part and host event and workshops, organize delegation and share knowledge and experience and assist in promote geothermal at a country to county level. The cluster takes active part in defining best practice for the sector and building up international collaborations to map best practice. The cluster performs analysis, published reports and papers. IGCI is involved in international collaboration and is a member of International Geothermal Association (IGA) and Geothermal Global Alliance (GGA).

As previously described, the mapping looked to the already mature energy sector in Iceland that had century of experience working with hydropower and geothermal resources. Within the sector unique sets of skills and knowledge had accumulated, specifically around geothermal utilisation. Iceland had been active in sharing its knowledge with equipment manufacturers, specialists and other countries though delegation visits. However, a unified platform focus on developing business and innovation opportunities was missing. Iceland Geothermal Cluster is a business-driven cluster aimed at sustaining competitive advantage of the geothermal industry.

Several working groups were established under the Iceland Geothermal name and a workshop was held in Reykjavik in May 2011. The idea of an international conference soon emerged and it was decided that and international conference should be held in the name of the cluster initiative. The conference should focus on business development and utilisation. The quality of the conference should be benchmark based on participation of industry leaders, influential speakers and, if possible, new business opportunities created. This was at the time in contrast to most other conferences that were focused on academic aspects, and the quality was commonly measured in number of publications introduced at the event.

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