Geothermal energy

Geothermal energy uses the heat of the earth for heating, cooling and power production.

Geothermal energy supplies more than 10,000 MW to 24 countries worldwide and now produces enough electricity to meet the needs of 60 million people. It is considered possible to produce up to 8.3% of the total world electricity with geothermal resources, serving 17% of the world population. Thirty nine countries (located mostly in Africa, Central/South America, and the Pacific) can potentially obtain 100% of their electricity from geothermal resources (Dauncey, 2001). Already 24 countries are using geothermal energy source for producing electricity and another 22 countries will add to the list by 2010.

Classification of geothermal energy

Broadly, geothermal can be classified into two: Geothermal-based heating/cooling and geothermal based power production. The setup for each of these is quite different and they require different scales of operation as well.

Geothermal based heating and cooling essentially taps the heat of the earth a few hundred meters below the surface by using geothermal pumps. A heat exchanger essentially transfers the heat from below the surface to the point where it is needed.

In 2005, 72 countries reported using geothermal energy for direct heating, providing more than 16,000 MW of geothermal energy. Geothermal energy is used directly for a variety of purposes, including space heating, snow melting, aquaculture and more.

Geothermal power plants, on the other hand, most times need hot springs and hence can only be located in regions where such geological activity is present.

Market size and growth

By mid 2008, worldwide installed capacity of geothermal energy for electricity generation had crossed the 10 GW mark. Worldwide, about 30 GW of direct geothermal heating capacity is installed for district heating, space heating, spas, industrial processes, desalination and agricultural applications. If heat recovered by ground source heat pumps is included, the non-electric use of geothermal energy is estimated at more than 100 GWt (gigawatts of thermal power) and is used commercially in over 70 countries.

The number of GHPs has steadily increased over the past 10 years. The present worldwide installed capacity is estimated at almost 12,000 MWt (thermal) and the annual energy use is about 72,000 TJ (20,000 GWh). The actual number of installed units is around 1,100,000.

Geothermal energy has shown signs of considerable growth over the last few years. Global geothermal installed capacity (for electricity) has escalated from 7,972 MWe in 2000 to around 9,700 MWe in the year 2007 (generating about 0.3% of global electricity demand) and is expected to reach around 13,600 MWe by 2012, with a CAGR of 7%.

Technology advancements

As seen from the chart above, with technology improvement, the total electicity generation potential from geothermal increases 100%. The technology improvements are likely to come primarily from innovative concepts such as enhanced geothermal.

Until recently, geothermal power systems have only exploited resources where naturally occurring water and rock porosity is sufficient to carry heat to the surface. However, the vast majority of geothermal energy within drilling reach is in dry and non-porous rock. Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) are a new type of geothermal power technologies that do not require natural convective hydrothermal resources. EGS technologies "enhance" and/or create geothermal resources in this hot dry rock (HDR) through hydraulic stimulation.

With technology advancement, it is estimated that the following countries could meet 100 percent of electricity demand with geothermal energy.

Country	Population	Total Electricity Demand	Estimated Geothermal Capacity Required to Meet Electricity Demand
	(Thousands)	(Million Kilowatt-hours)	(Megawatts)
			¹
Bolivia	9,694	5,040	639
Burundi	8,856	140	18
Comoros Islands	860	20	3
Costa Rica	4,534	8,350	1,059
Djibouti	848	200	25
Dominica	73	80	10
Ecuador	13,481	12,940	1,641
El Salvador	6,953	4,690	595
Ethiopia	85,219	2,860	363
Fiji	844	1,050	133
Grenada	106	150	19
Guadeloupe	448	1,100	140
Guatemala	13,686	7,280	923
Honduras	7,246	5,340	677
Iceland	303	8,530	1,082
Indonesia	234,342	120,330	15,263
Kenya	38,550	5,500	698
Madagascar	20,215	1,050	133
Malawi	14,288	1,400	178
Martinique	400	1,120	142
Montserrat	10	20	3
Mozambique	21,813	13,170	1,670
Nicaragua	5,676	2,720	345
Panama	3,399	5,660	718
Papua New Guinea	6,458	3,700	469
Peru	28,221	24,970	3,167
Philippines	89,651	53,670	6,807
Rwanda	10,009	100	13
Saint Kitts and Nevis	40	130	16
Saint Lucia	167	300	38
Saint Vincent	121	120	15
Solomon Islands	507	60	8
Somalia	8,956	270	34
Sudan	39,445	3,940	500
Tanzania	41,464	1,880	238
Tonga	101	40	5
Uganda	31,903	1,980	251
Vanuatu	232	40	5
Yemen	23,066	4,460	566
Total	772,185	304,400	38,610

¹ Assuming a capacity factor of 90 percent, typical of new geothermal power plants.

Government mandates and incentives for geothermal energy

Currently, geothermal as a renewable energy source is being explored in a significant manner only in a fraction of the total number of countries worldwide, but this number is likely to increase with advanced technologies as Enhanced Geothermal is expanding the range of potential regions that could be sources of geothermal energy. In those countries that have existing proven geothermal resources (such as the USA and Philippines), the governments have released mandates and programmes that show exceptional support for this renewable energy source. This support is in the form of tax breaks, grants, subsidies and more.

Range of business opportunities

Manufacturing opportunities exists in heat pumps, components and material production. Opportunities in service sector ranges from exploring geothermal location to installing and maintaining the industry.

Small Scale Business Opportunities:

Consulting and installation for home-based geothermal systems
Training people for geothermal heat pump installations.

Medium Scale Business Opportunities:

Setting up medium scale geothermal plants
Setting up manufacturing plants for components and accessories for the geothermal energy industry.

Large Scale Business Opportunities:

Setting up large scale geothermal plants. There could be excellent business opportunities for businesses in some of the smaller countries located mostly in Africa, Central/South America, and the Pacific which have a high potential for geothermal but have not exploited it so far.
If R&D efforts into domains such as enhanced geothermal system are successful, they could result in many more regions around the world starting to invest in geothermal energy

Sustainability in long run

Geothermal is long term survivor. The initial adoption starts to become significant from 2015 onwards. There is also a forecast increase in the roll out in the 2030s as unspecified technology improvements increase the efficiency.

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