The companies Steam from Italy and Gesto Energia from Portugal have created a unique consortium that combines the technical know-how of more than 30 years in the geothermal industry and a international experience in energy project development with strong focus on financial, given by our investors’ perspective.
Putting together our expertise, of more than 30 years of experience in all the value chain of development of geothermal projects, with more than 30 years working for one of the largest utility companies in the world with geothermal projects, ENEL (www.enel.com), acquiring therefore the experience of engineering and operating in a utility perspective, combined with the financial orientated results policy, given by the investors’ perspective present in the consortium, due to their Independent Power Producer (IPP) experience and the development of energy projects – from solar, to hydro, to biomass, to wind and geothermal, around the world, SGC is a consortium with a solid and strong experience in geothermal power, from resource evaluation, to engineering, to project development, to operation and maintenance.
STEAM (http://www.steam-group.net) is an Italian company providing independent professional advice and assistance to both public and private sector clients worldwide. STEAM personnel have worked with all the major international funding agencies.
STEAM was born in 1987 as an engineering company to operate into the Energy and Environmental Sector with particular reference to Geothermal Energy development. Its principal partners come from Enel Geothermal Sector and have more than 30 years of experience in geothermal field with particular reference to, designing geothermal power plants, reservoir engineering, geothermal fluid handling and geological geophysical survey study.
At the end of eighties and during the nineties STEAM cooperated with the most significant geothermal Consulting firms (Enel Green Power, ELC Electroconsult, Dal spa, Geotermica Italiana) providing consulting, operational and training services in the development, assessment and evaluation of geothermal energy with particular reference to geothermal fluid equipment and interaction with geothermal power plant.
In the following years, the addition of new partners with a great experience in the field of consulting services and the tight collaboration with worldwide environmental consulting company (ERM Group) consolidated company’s competences in environmental consulting services. In particular STEAM collaborated to provide its technical consulting services in the field of Institutional Strengthening Programs with International Organizations (World Bank, EBRD, Italian Ministry of Environment) and was involved in the audit and restoration project of industrial sites of Pancevo (Italian Ministry of Environment) and Bor in Serbia, which are both UNEP environmental hot spots. More recently, STEAM carried out the Environmental Assessment of the Sibovc Lignite Field in Kosovo.
In the last year, STEAM focused on full range Geothermal Activity with the aim of developing Italian and international geothermal Projects. In this vision, STEAM strengthened its staff with the presence of former Enel Green Power Engineers, capable of significant experience in Design, Construction, commissioning and startup of Geothermal Power Plants. After the execution of a reconnaissance study of the Italian Medium Enthalpy (130‐170 °C) Geothermal Resources with the aim of applying for Geothermal Research Permits, STEAM obtained and managed 15 Geothermal Research Permits in Central Italy for (and/or in cooperation with) other Companies.
In the meantime STEAM prepared basic design and technical specifications for four 5 MW ORC pilot geothermal power plants in Italy and cooperated with Elc Electroconsult in the preparation of Feed, Technical specifications and drawings for Lumut Balai Geothermal Power plant Project 2X55 MW.
A large number of professionals with long experience in Geothermal Energy Projects cooperate with STEAM strengthening its competence in all field of Geothermal.
At the end of 2013, STEAM transferred to the International Company Tauw all the competences and resources on Environmet (incorporated into Tauw Italia, that remain a strategic subcontractor), focusing its business on Geothermal Consultancy and Engineering.
At the end of 2014 STEAM opened an office in El Salvador, Central America.
In both offices (Italy and Central America), more external experts with long experience in Geothermal Design, Reservoir Engineering, Steam Gathering, Power Plant Design and O&M, joined the Company.
Now STEAM is a private company whose staffs is made of a pool of geothermal specialists with a long worldwide experience, a complete multidisciplinary knowledge of the resource exploitation methods and a strong vision of how to manage the high risk in Greenfield investments.
More information is also in the website: www.steam-group.net.
GESTO (www.gestoenergy.com) is a company of Gesto Investimento e Gestão (GIG), an international group specialized in energy consulting and renewable energy project development.
Gesto was founded in 2008 with the aim to be a leading and independent adviser, and a trustworthy partner to ensure that renewables happen worldwide, improving the lives of people and making a world of difference. Currently, Gesto is an internationally active company headquartered in Lisbon (Portugal) and with offices in Italy, Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Rwanda.
In terms of geothermal projects, established in 2009, Gesto Italy was the first to apply for concessions in the Tuscany region following new legislation enacted in February 2010 that opened the Italian Geothermal Market to private sector development. Gesto Italia is currently the fifth largest geothermal concession holder in Italy, holding four geothermal concessions covering an area of more than 289 km2 in the Tuscany region. All four concessions are in an advanced stage of exploration with excellent surrounding infrastructure for drilling, exploitation and transmission.
The concessions awarded through a competitive process in 2011 and 2012 administered by the regional government and the Italian Central Government. The four concessions, Cinigiano (141.20 km2), Montalcino (65.47 km2), Mazzolla (52.50 km2) and Montenero (30.19 km2) are close to two proven, high-grade geothermal systems with similar geology, the Larderello-Travale and Monte Amiata geothermal fields. These prolific fields have been developed over a long period of time (the first geothermal project in the world was built on the Larderello field in 1913) and today have a combined total of 772 MW of installed geothermal capacity. Gesto’s access to the detailed data on the underground strata formations and reservoir characteristics of these operating fields maximizes the probability of successfully developing the resources within the concession areas. Additionally, Gesto’s management has many years of first-hand experience within the Monte Amiata and Larderello geothermal fields.
Detailed resource studies have been conducted on each of the four concessions and Gesto has identified six distinct zones where management believes heat resources exist at drillable depths between 1,800 to 3,000 meters. Based on these findings, the Company has developed detailed plans for the initial development of up to 52 MW gross / 41 MW net of geothermal power capacity on four of the six identified zones, which represents only a small portion of the total estimated heat resource of 695 MWs. Once operational, the geothermal power generation plants are expected to benefit from the supportive renewable incentive framework offered by Italian Government, including an attractive feed-in tariff (“FiT”). The FiT has been established pursuant to a recent law passed on 6 July 2012 (the “2012 Renewables Decree”) and implemented by the Italian Ministry for Economic Development to promote renewable energy development by the private sector in Italy.
With collective experience of more than 4,000 MW of renewable energy in Asia, Africa, America and Europe, Gesto has know-how and experience in the development of renewable energy policy as well as master plans and supports all phases of renewable energy project development.
So far, Gesto team has: identified and studied more than 4,000 MW, developed and built more than 800 MW, and operation and maintenance of 64 MW of wind projects; identified and studied more than 3,000 MW of solar PV and 1.000 MW of solar CSP projects, and developed more than 50 MW of solar PV projects of which 16 MW are already in operation; and identified and studied more than 40,000 MW of hydro projects, from small hydro to large pump storage projects - Gesto developed the first Portuguese pumped-storage project.
On the other hand, Gesto presents an extensive experience in energy consulting and, consequently, a worldwide portfolio of concluded and on-going energy consulting projects, namely, Gesto has supported and supports Angola, Cape Verde, East Timor, Namibia and Mozambique Governments on the identification of renewable energy projects and definition of renewable energy policies.
Gesto’s worldwide expertise and its commitment to excellence have been assuring it international recognition, including, but not limited to, Gesto being selected by The World Bank as one of the TOP 3 consultants for hydro resource evaluation and, hence, awarded with a 4 year framework contract for renewable hydro mapping services, already including two projects, one in Indonesia, a project that consists in mapping, cadaster and database creation of small hydropower plants in the Indonesian archipelago, and another project in Vietnam, to develop strategic planning guidelines for the Small Hydroelectric (small hydro) in the Vietnamese territory.
