Jul 21 2009

The Case for Geothermal

Posted by: Jonathan Marshall

While solar power gets much of the good buzz these days, geothermal power holds the most promise as a clean and economical alternative to fossil fuels, according to a comparative technology study by two experts at NYU's Stern School of Business.

PG&E opened the first commercial geothermal plant in 1960, and today that technology supplies about five percent of the utility's power, more than any other form of renewable energy. But long as it's been around, the technology has never enjoyed significant funding to exploit its full potential.

From 1974 to 2005, nine major governments collectively spent almost $38 billion on fossil fuel technologies and about $11 billion on solar, compared to a mere $2.6 billion on geothermal energy. Yet more than any other sector of power generation, the geothermal industry "shows exponential growth" in the payoff (kWh per dollar) from R&D spending and shows "no indication of slowing performance improvement," the authors conclude in their new paper in the journal Energy Policy.

Geothermal is already one of the least expensive forms of renewable energy--less than a third the cost of concentrating solar power or utility-scale photovoltaic power, according to figures they supply. The authors estimate that with an R&D investment of only $7.5 billion--peanuts compared to the energy budgets of the nine governments--geothermal would likely become even less expensive than generation from fossil fuels today.

As previously discussed in NEXT100, enhanced geothermal recovery techniques, still in the testing phase, could radically increase the industry's potential. And just last week the DOE's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory reported the breakthrough discovery of a new fluid--based on "nanostructured metal-organic heat carriers"--that could be heated by underground geothermal reservoirs and used to drive high-efficiency power turbines.

Total funding for the lab's research: just $1.2 million.  At this rate, maybe geothermal won't even need the full $7.5 billion to prove its mettle.

© 2008 Pacific Gas and Electric Company. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms

"PG&E" refers to Pacific Gas and Electric Company, a subsidiary of PG&E Corporation.