Is Geothermal the Missing Piece in the Clean Energy Transition?

Renewable energy plays a crucial role in both climate change mitigation and adaptation. Renewable resources like solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, and ocean waves provide an alternative to conventional and fossil-fuel energy.

One of the challenges facing renewable energy is intermittency. For example, sunshine and wind cannot provide an on-demand power source 24 hours a week; hence, they are called intermittent and unpredictable energy resources. To address this intermittency problem, geothermal energy is regarded as the missing piece to achieve clean and firm power that is always available on demand in the clean energy movement.

Geothermal energy and its benefits

Geothermal energy is heat energy from the earth. These geothermal hot water resources below the earth’s surface range from a few feet to several miles deep. They can be tapped into or drilled for various applications, including electricity generation, heating, and cooling.

Tapping into geothermal energy for electricity generation provides many benefits.

First, geothermal energy is renewable – the heat flowing from Earth’s interior is continually replenished by the decay of naturally occurring radioactive elements and will always remain available.

Second, it is firm and flexible. Geothermal power plants produce electricity consistently and can run 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, regardless of weather conditions.

Third, geothermal energy is domestically available. Geothermal heat is available virtually anywhere in the world and can be accessed for heat and to generate energy.

Fourth, geothermal power plants are compact, using less land per gigawatt-hour (404 m²) compared to coal (3,642 m²), wind (1,335 m²), and solar photovoltaics (3,237 m²).

Lastly, modern geothermal plants are innovative. They emit no greenhouse gases (GHG), have life cycle emissions four times lower than solar PV, and six to twenty times lower than natural gas. On average, geothermal power plants consume less water over their lifetime energy output than most conventional electricity-generation technologies.

Geothermal energy has used conventional approaches for more than 100 years. Innovation and the use of new technologies usher the next generation of geothermal that can generate geothermal energy anywhere in the world and not limited to very few areas with the right conditions, such as naturally occurring heat, fluid and permeable rock, and relatively rare conditions.

Next-generation geothermal technologies

In contrast, next-generation geothermal power doesn’t require natural underground reservoirs. All it needs is the earth’s heat, which can be available anywhere in the world with the right technologies. This means that geothermal energy has the potential to unlock massive amounts of clean energy across the globe.

In 2022, the Enhanced Geothermal Shot™ analysis shows the potential for geothermal energy to generate up to 90 gigawatts by 2050, given an aggressive cost reduction in enhanced geothermal systems. The “Next-Generation Geothermal Power Commercial Liftoff” report indicates an even higher potential of up to 300 GW of next-generation geothermal electricity generation, depending on the development of storage capabilities and other emerging technologies. 

The article in World Resources Institute discussed geothermal energy’s potential and how countries like the United States are already investing in the next generation of geothermal energy, particularly the Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), which is currently the most advanced technology to access the Earth’s heat virtually anywhere and transforming it into usable energy.

Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) apply fracking or hydraulic fracturing (high-pressure water injection) to extract petroleum or natural gas deep in the planet.  This time, fracking extracts heat sources, which comes with lower risks.

The article points out some risks involved in EGS, one of which is earthquakes, which can be overcome by complying with regulations. For instance, several earthquakes that caused damage in France, Switzerland, and South Korea were linked to EGS projects, particularly those located near natural faults or with poor underground mapping.

In the US, to avoid earthquakes linked to EGS, projects must comply with the Department of Energy‘s Induced Seismicity Protocol, which has successfully prevented earthquakes for over a decade.

The article also highlights that next-generation geothermal costs have fallen significantly, driving companies to sign deals as they see the benefits of a firm, clean power source in geothermal energy. Lastly, it presents what is needed to scale up geothermal power to obtain its promise of providing a clean, renewable, and reliable energy source and contributing to a zero-carbon grid and economy.

Read the WRI article: Next-Generation Geothermal Can Help Unlock 100% Clean Power.

A video from the US Department of Energy explains the Enhance Geothermal Systems