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Unleash America's Geothermal Power
Unleashing America's Geothermal generation potential is key to both addressing global warming and gaining energy independence. According to the government, geothermal has the potential to supply the United States with 20% of our electricity needs.

Geothermal energy is a form of renewable energy that uses heat from deep inside the earth. In geothermal power plants steam, heat or hot water from geothermal sources provide the energy that spins the turbine generators and produces electricity.

The typical geothermal power plant operates at full capacity about 95% of the time. Like wind and solar power generation, carbon-free geothermal does not burn fuels to manufacture steam to turn the turbines so it emits only a small fraction of the carbon dioxide emitted by coal or natural gas power plants on a per-megawatt hour basis.

The land area required for geothermal power plants is smaller per megawatt than for almost every other type of power plant.

The capital cost of geothermal development is expensive, however; 2/3rds are drilling costs. Yet as we overcome some of these technology challenges and make the process more standardized it is believed that geothermal can supply up to 20% of the United States electricity needs by 2050. But innovation and investment in initial steps need to happen now.

— Robert Moen, Founder        
rmoen@energyplanUSA.com

Geothermal — energy under our feet
National Renewable Energy Laboratory - 2006
The Earth houses a vast energy supply in the form of geothermal resources. But geothermal energy has not reached its full potential as a clean, secure energy alternative because of issues with resources, technology, historically low natural gas prices, and public policies. As a baseload generation source, geothermal energy is well proven and reliable. Geothermal power plants emit little carbon dioxide, very low quantities of sulfur dioxide, and no nitrogen oxides.

Increased geothermal development will depend on overcoming many challenges
GAO Report 2006
Recent assessments conclude that future electricity production from geothermal resources could increase by 25 to 367 percent by 2017. Current production of 2,500 megawatts of electricity — enough to supply 2.5 million homes — could increase to between about 3,100 and 12,000 megawatts in 11 years. Developers of geothermal electricity plants face many challenges including a capital intensive and risky business environment, developing technology, insufficient transmission capacity, lengthy federal review processes for approving permits and applications, and a complex federal royalty system.

Benefits of geothermal energy
Geothermal Energy Association - 2007
• Geothermal energy is as reliable as any fossil fuel facility because geothermal resources are available 24 hours a day regardless of changing weather.
• Geothermal offers baseload power, is dispatchable, and can achieve high capacity factors.
• Geothermal resources are sustainable because of the heat from the earth will not diminish like fossil fuel reserves.
• Geothermal energy produces minimal air emissions. The binary geothermal plant, which currently represents around 15 percent of all geothermal plant capacity, along with the flash/binary plant, produce nearly zero air emissions.
• Geothermal energy is combustion free. Unlike fossil fuel power plants, no smoke is emitted from geothermal power plants, because no burning takes place: only steam is emitted from geothermal facilities.
• Geothermal energy uses less land than other energy sources, both fossil fuel and renewable.
• No transportation of geothermal resources is necessary, because the resource is tapped directly at its source.

Baker Hughes drills deep for high-stress bits
Wall Street Journal 2009
Baker Huges is trying to create drills and measurement equipment that can function at nearly 600 degrees Fahrenheit, if not more; a geothermal well in northern Japan in the mid 1990s topped 930 degrees. A typical oil well doesn't get much hotter than 400 degrees.

Tapping geothermal energy requires drilling into the earth and using its natural pockets of water or steam to run generators that make electricity, much like coal is burned to make steam and produce power. Unlike wind and solar power, geothermal can run around the clock. In the eyes of utilities, it is a dependable source of power, similar to nuclear, coal or natural gas. It doesn't emit carbon or contribute to climate change. Geothermal is also competitive on price with existing power supplies. The cost of producing electricity from geothermal is equal to the cost of a modern natural-gas plant and beats coal generators, wind farms and nuclear plants, according to a recent report by investment bank HSBC.

U.S. geothermal could supply 7 million people
CNET News 2009
If current projects under development are completed, the U.S. could have as much as 10 gigawatts of geothermal power at its disposal, according to a new report from the Geothermal Energy Association.

There are currently 144 new geothermal projects under development in 14 states. "At the high end, that would be enough baseload power to supply about 20 percent of California's total electric power in 2008--or enough generating capacity to supply the power needs of about 7.2 million people," the GEA said. Nevada leads with 64 new projects that could add a geothermal capacity of up to 3,473 megawatts.

Big plans for geothermal energy
LA Times 2008
Vast stretches of federal land in the West would be open to geothermal energy development under a plan released by U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. The plan identifies 190 million acres – nearly twice the size of California – that would be available for geothermal leasing in 12 Western states. "Geothermal energy will play a key role in powering America's energy future," Kempthorne said in a news release, "and 90% of our nation's geothermal resources are found on federal land."

All of Nevada, much of Idaho and Oregon and good chunks of California, Colorado and New Mexico have geothermal potential, based on heat flow maps. Heat from Earth's interior escapes in cracks and fissures in the crust that frequently follow fault networks. The Great Basin, which includes most of Nevada, is slowly pulling itself apart and California is riddled with fault lines, making them hot spots of geothermal production.

Although geothermal facilities have a smaller footprint than solar or wind fields, they would leave their mark on the land much like oil and gas development – with roads, pipelines, power plants and transmission lines.

Geothermal energy gathering steam
CBS News 2008
The financial meltdown on Wall Street, soaring oil prices, the volatility of the natural gas market, concern about global warming and a new administration assuming the White House are driving increasing demand for the energy produced by harnessing heat from beneath the earth's surface, they said. "This is the perfect storm of events to prove the geothermal industry is going to help address and possibly solve a lot of our energy issues," said Rebecca Wagner, a former manager at a geothermal development company who serves on the state Public Utilities Commission in Nevada, which has the most potential geothermal power in the country.

Nevada has 10 geothermal power plants generating 325 megawatts of power with 73 more megawatts deliverable by 2010. It has a U.S.-leading 45 projects in the works - more than double the 21 in California, the next busiest state. One megawatt equals 1,000 kilowatts, enough to serve about 1,000 U.S. homes. More than 2,100 megawatts of known geothermal resources can be easily developed in Nevada - enough to exceed a state requirement that 20 percent of Nevada's total power production be renewable by 2015, said Lisa Shevenell, the director of the Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy. Gov. Jim Gibbons said 80 percent of the federal acres leased for geothermal projects in the nation are in Nevada, which issues an average of 60 drill permits annually for geothermal projects.

Dan Reicher, director of climate change for Google.org, said his company invested $10 million as part of a plan announced last year to develop "enhanced geothermal systems" technology to generate energy from rocks deep below the earth's surface. "It is indeed the sleeping giant of renewable energy," said Reicher, a former assistant U.S. energy secretary. "Indeed, the giant is stirring."