Rapid expansion of geothermal energy resources underway in Western U.S.

December 15, 2008 · Filed Under Electric Power, Environment · Comment 

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. electric power plants generated approximately 4 billion Megawatthours of electricity in 2006, and about 0.4% of that total came from geothermal power…

Net U.S. Electricity Generation (2006)

But that half percent is growing with large capital investments from investors such as Warren Buffett, Google, and others. A lot of the new investment is in the United States, where more than 80% of the country’s 3,000 geothermal megawatts lies in California.

In October, the Bureau of Land Management announced plans to offer more than 190 million acres of federal lands for geothermal leasing, potentially resulting in a tripling of U.S. geothermal power capacity by 2015.

Interior Department’s estimates of potential geothermal power production may actually be low, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). In late September, the USGS released its first assessment of geothermal resources in more than 30 years. The study found that identified geothermal resources in the West could produce 9,057 MW of power, while another 30,033 MW of power could be generated from conventional geothermal resources that have not yet been discovered. The use of Enhanced Geothermal Systems, which involves creating or expanding a geothermal resource through the high-pressure injection of a fluid, opens another 517,800 MW to potential development. For comparison, the U.S. currently has an installed geothermal power capacity of about 2,500 MW.

Raser Technologies, Inc. recently announced that it completed major construction of its Thermo geothermal plant, the first commercial geothermal power plant built in Utah in more than two decades. The 10-megawatt facility combined 50 modular, low-temperature PureCycle power units from UTC Power, United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX), allowing power plant construction in just a few months.

Utah is also slated to host a new 100-megawatt geothermal power plant, to be located on lands owned by the Northwest Band of the Shoshone Nation, and many other geothermal plants are springing up across the Western U.S.

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