Moscow, 9 August 2004. Today, the Working Group of RAO "UES of Russia" headed by the Chairman of the Management Board of RAO "UES of Russia" Anatoly Chubais will fly to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky to take part in the International Geothermal Workshop (IGW-2004) on 10-11 August 2004.

IGW-2004 is organized by the Geothermal Energy Society (GES) with the financial support of RAO "UES of Russia", OAO "Geotherm", the Global Environmental Facility, Savings Bank of Russia, Moscow Energy Institute, and OAO "Nauka". The Honorary Chairman of the Workshop is Anatoly Chubais, Chairman of the Management Board of RAO "UES of Russia".

170 specialists from 16 countries of the world will take part in the Workshop. They discuss the economic, technical, and scientific aspects of geothermal energy production. In particular, the Workshop will consider the promising technological solutions in the area of utilization of the Earth's heat, and projects to use the geothermal resources in Russia, the CIS, and Europe.

Geothermal energy is an environmentally safe source of power which can be used to generate heat and electricity. The Earth's geothermal resources are used in the energy industries of 58 countries of the world. In Russia's Kamchatskaya Region, there are 3 geothermal power plants with an aggregate capacity of 73 MW. Two of them – Mutnovskaya GeoPP and Verkhne-Mutnovskaya GeoPP – were built by RAO "UES of Russia" in 1999-2002. The global electricity production using geothermal resources is 50 TWh, with Russia accounting for 10% of this volume.