Interview with Gábor Szita

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Gábor Szita. Since 1991 I’ve been working in Porció Ltd. for Technical Development and Ventures. I am also the president of the Hungarian Geothermal Association (HGA).

What makes Geothermal so great?

It saved my life.

After finishing university and starting to work I soon learnt how difficult it is to find a good job. A job, which is interesting. A job that allows you to be creative and loads your brain’s capacity. Only 9 months had passed since I entered the research institute I worked for and I was desperately trying to find out what to do as a mechanical engineer in Hungary. I took me 3 days to discover geothermal. I knew that I didn’t want to leave my country so I needed something local. Geothermal is local. I was seeking for something unusual or unique. Geothermal is so. Then I had to find a company that dealt with geothermal. I have succeded and in half a year’s time I was working for them. Back then it was the only company dealing with geothermal in the whole country.

It was great. A young and dynamic team of engineers led by an experienced and ambitious older manager was formed and we did meaningful works. We worked a lot. Tremendously a lot. But that was not a problem. More than 30 years have passed since then and I did not regret my choice.

So, why choose Geothermal? It’s easy to answer. You can enjoy both the independence from other sources of energy and the less expensive prices, while using an environmental friendly local energy.

What makes IGA so great?

The mere existence of it. For me it is clear that we need an international worldwide organisation representing geothermal. Fortunately, IGA successfully fulfils its main tasks: it brings together geothermal fans from all over the world at least once in every 5 years and supplies all the relevant information to the members of geothermal community. IGA is perfect.