Geothermal industry in United States - Current and future outlook

The US geothermal industry is expanding into new regions with the support of increased funding and technological advancements. Up to 18,900 MW of potentially exploitable geothermal resources were discovered in West Virginia in 2010. The development of coproduced geothermally heated water from hydrocarbon production has led to a number of oil and gas geothermal coproduction projects in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and North Dakota.

In the past year the Department of Energy (DOE) funded geothermal research, development, and demonstration projects in 50 states, including DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Program which received over $50 million in support and completed action on its nearly $400 million in Recovery Act grants.

Congress extended the Section 1603 Tax Credit program created by the stimulus bill for another year; bipartisan legislation extending the 30% Investment Tax Credit for new geothermal projects through 2016 was introduced in both the House and Senate, and legislation restoring payments to counties from geothermal bids and royalties was approved by the House and will hopefully pass the Senate.

“In both the House and Senate, key geothermal supporters won re-election, several by significant margins,” said Gawell. “We believe this shows that their efforts to support more clean, domestic geothermal power production were recognized by their constituents.”

The US geothermal industry is working with collaborative state and regional efforts, as well as other renewable groups, to ensure transmission networks and policies support new geothermal development. The Western Electricity Coordinating Council and the Western Governors’ Association have over $25 million in DOE funding to develop 10 and 20-year transmission plans for the Western Interconnection. GEA also publicly opposed California Proposition 23, which was defeated by California voters in November.

As 2011 unfolds there will be a new surge in geothermal power projects. Around 500 to 700 MW of power projects should enter their final construction phase, adding approximately 3,000 construction jobs. The geothermal sector is also growing in diversity, with almost half of federal stimulus awards going to non-industry entities such as colleges and universities; cities, counties, and other state and local institutions; tribal entities; and The Department of Energy’s National Labs.

New geothermal projects in 2011 will mean over $2 billion in new capital investment. The finance community will gather with top experts and major players in geothermal development and finance for the 2011 Geothermal Energy Finance Forum on Wednesday, February 9, 2011 at the Ritz-Carlton, Battery Park in New York City. The program will report on global growth in geothermal production and use.

Nevada geothermal energy statistics

Nevada is currently the second largest geothermal energy producer in United States, behind California, with the capacity of around 450 MW at the end of 2009.

Nevada is ranked first in the nation in installed geothermal energy capacity on a per-person basis.

Nevada currently has 86 planned or developing geothermal power stations (the largest number in the US) which should add up to 3.68 gigawatts to the state’s energy production within the next decade.

Fourteen geothermal power plants are at this moment in latter stages of development in the state, and these projects alone would create close to 1500 green jobs in Nevada.

Nevada has generated around $44 million from Bureau of Land Management geothermal leasing activities.

Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) predicts that Nevada's geothermal industry worth would be up to $22.5 billion over the next 30 years.

Nevada currently has more than 630,000 acres of BLM land leased to geothermal developers.

In 2009 Nevada had 19 operational geothermal power plants.

It is expected that 1,500 megawatts of geothermal power could be produced in Nevada by 2015.

US geothermal energy statistics

US is global geothermal energy leader with an installed geothermal capacity of 3,086 megawatts (MW) in 2010.

Geothermal energy is the fourth most important renewable energy source in the United States (behind hydropower, biomass and wind power) accounting for around 4% of renewable energy-based electricity consumption in the U.S.

United States generates around 15 billion kilowatt hours of geothermal power per year, which makes around 30% of the world's total.

US currently has 77 geothermal power plant, most of which are located in California (43).

California is the leading US state in installed geothermal power capacity with a total output bigger than 2500 MW.

The most active geothermal energy area in United States is the Geysers, California. The Geysers is large geothermal facility consisting of 22 geothermal power plants (dry steam), with total capacity bigger than 1500 MW.

An average geothermal power plant in United States emits around 122 kg of CO2 per megawatt-hour of electricity.

Average geothermal power plant in United States needs approximately 20 litres of freshwater per MWh, and 3.5 square kilometres per gigawatt of electrical production.

Operational and maintenance costs of geothermal power plants in United States are $0.01 - $0.03 per kWh.

Geothermal power plants in United States have installation costs of around $2500 per installed kW.

More than 90 percent of US geothermal resources are found on federal lands.

Top three geothermal energy producers in United States are California, Nevada and Utah.

US installs more than 50,000 geothermal heat pumps each year.

Geothermal energy currently satisfies around 20% of Hawaii's power demand.

US geothermal energy sector has experienced growth of 26% in 2009.

California geothermal energy statistics

California is the largest geothermal power producer in the United States with more than 2,500 MW of currently installed geothermal power capacity, enough to power 2,5 million US homes.

California has 43 operational geothermal power plants, most of them are being located at Geysers, area near the San Francisco with 37 geothermal projects in development which could amount to up to 1997.7 MW, enough to power an additional 2 million homes in California.

Geothermal energy currently accounts for around 5% of state's electricity.

Geothermal energy is currently harnessed in 24 countries in the world, California currently has more geothermal power on-line than any of the 23 other countries with geothermal power.

The US Department of Energy awarded $47.4 million to 22 geothermal projects in California to produce even more geothermal power.

California is currently second ranked US state in number of new geothermal energy projects (with 37), behind Nevada's 64 projects under development with the potential for nearly 3,500 MW of new geothermal capacity.

The Geysers, a complex of 22 geothermal power plants 72 miles north of San Francisco has 1517 MW of active installed geothermal power capacity.

Geothermal energy basics

Introduction

Geothermal energy refers to power extracted from heat stored in the Earth. Where does this heat originate from? It all started long, long time ago when our planet originally started its formation, from radioactive decay beneath the Earth's surface, volcanic activity, and also from solar energy that was absorbed at the surface. The first geothermal energy use was for bathing, but today geothermal energy is mostly used to generate electricity, and in some countries also for heating purposes in form of geothermal heating.

What's good about geothermal energy?

Geothermal energy is renewable energy source that cannot be depleted since earth is in constant state of producing heat, and it does not produce harmful carbon emissions nor it contributes to air pollution like fossil fuels (coal, oil, and natural gas do). Geothermal energy is clean, cost effective, reliable, sustainable, and environmentally friendly source of energy. Unlike solar and wind energy geothermal energy doesn't suffer from intermittency issue, and once built geothermal power plants offer extremely reliable clean energy solution.

What's not good about geothermal energy?

High installation costs are probably the first thing when talking about the cons of renewable energy. Geothermal power plants are very expensive to be built costing twice as much compared to natural gas power plants. High construction and drilling costs are the main reason why geothermal energy isn't economically viable option in all corners of the world, but only in areas with suitable amount of hot rocks at just the right depth for drilling. Once the drilling technologies become more technologically advanced geothermal energy will likely become much more competitive to fossil fuels.

Geothermal energy on global scale

Geothermal energy is renewable energy sector that is quickly expanding, and in the last couple of years global geothermal capacity has increased by more than 20%, with around 10,715 megawatts (MW) of geothermal capacity installed worldwide. 10,715 megawatts (MW) projects growth to 18,500 MW by 2015.

Geothermal energy in United States

United States is global leader in installed geothermal energy capacity with 3,086 MW of installed capacity coming from 77 geothermal power plants. California is the nation's leader with more than 2500 MW of geothermal energy production capacity but Nevada is quickly closing the gap. The first U.S. geothermal power plant was opened at The Geysers in California in 1960. According to current estimates installed geothermal capacity in the United States could exceed 15,000 MW by 2025.

Geothermal power plants

Three basic types of geothermal power plants are:
1.dry steam plants where steam is piped directly from a geothermal reservoir to turn the generator turbines.
2.flash steam plants that takes the high-pressured hot water from deep inside the Earth and convert it to steam to turn the generator turbines.
3.binary cycle power plants that transfer the heat from geothermal hot water to another liquid, and then the second liquid is turned into the steam that turns the generator turbines.

Geothermal energy environmental impact

As said before geothermal energy is environmentally friendly source of energy. Existing geothermal electric plants emit an average of 122 kilograms (269 lb) of CO2 per megawatt-hour (MW·h) of electricity, an amount negligible compared to fossil fuel power plants. Harnessing geothermal energy has minimal land and freshwater requirements. The only potential hazard is the fact that fluids drawn from the deep earth carry a mixture of gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), methane (CH4) and ammonia which can (if not treated properly) add to global warming, air pollution, and acid rain.