The Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO) co-organized the Slovak-Icelandic Business Forum with the Office of the President of the Slovak Republic and the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic. The respective event was devoted to the potential for the development of cooperation in the field of obtaining and subsequent use of geothermal energy. Iceland is a country whose national energy mix comes almost exclusively from renewable sources.Before the business forum itself, a site-visit of the geothermal energy project in Galanta (Galantaterm s.r.o.) was arranged for the Slovak and Icelandic representatives. The geothermal energy project in Galanta is the first ever in Slovakia and was created for the purpose of heating households and heating domestic water. At the same time, the project is an example of mutual cooperation between Slovak and Icelandic partners in terms of geothermal energy.The official opening of the Slovak-Icelandic business forum took place on the grounds of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs with opening speeches by the President of the Slovak Republic Zuzana Čaputová and the Icelandic President Guðni Th. Jóhannesson. Subsequently, the State Secretary of the Slovak Ministry of Economy, Peter Gerhart, welcomed the participants together with a presentation by the Director General of the Icelandic National Energy Authority, Halla Hrund Logadóttir.As part of the agenda of the business forum, the geothermal potential of Slovakia was presented by Radovan Černák, the head of geology of the State Geological Institute of Dionýz Štúr, and examples of the use of geothermal energy in practice by the municipality presented was by the mayor of Kežmarok, Ján Ferenčák. The intention to build a new geothermal power plant in Prešov and Žiar nad Hronom regions was presented by Milan Jankura, DG of PW Energy.In the second half of the business forum, specific negotiations took place between Slovak and Icelandic companies and institutions. The Icelandic delegation consisted of ten representatives, and the Slovak side was represented by more than twenty representatives of private companies, academic institutions and relevant actors. In the framework of mutual negotiations, more than sixty negotiations were carried out.
