Geothermal Data Standards

Data Collection | Update for the World Geothermal Congress

In January 2021 the International Geothermal Association (IGA) built a framework for geothermal data standards and methods to improve data collection and update the World Geothermal Congress (WGC) reporting. This work was led by the IGA Education and Information Committee with the goal to support the process of collecting, storing, and sharing coherent geothermal datasets.

In March 2021 two groups of experts were formed: one for geothermal power generation and one for geothermal heating and cooling. Each expert group had two sets of activities, categorized broadly as reviewing data standards and data management/analysis.

In November 2021 the work of the IGA experts was completed. Our results are revisions of power and heating and cooling dataset standards, including energy definitions, categories, direct use classification, and methods of data collection. These results are to be used as standards for the IGA data collection and for customized questionnaires for the World Geothermal Congresses Country Updates and proposed for reference to other organizations.

The report,  presenting the updated heating & cooling dataset and results of the IGA Heat Expert Group, is now available here: Geothermal Data Standards