| Geothermal power
Geothermal resources of the USA. Source: National Laboratory of the Rockies (formerly NREL).
near tectonic plate boundaries or volcanic hotspots. EGS incorporates newer drilling technologies developed for upstream oil and natural gas production, such as horizontal drilling and fracking, to create hydrothermal reservoirs where they don’t currently exist. Successful pilot projects have demonstrated that hydrothermal wells can help EGS technology further expand current geothermal power generation at existing sites and place geothermal generators throughout the United States instead of at very limited locations in western states.
Geothermal power plant sites in the USA, conventional and EGS. Source: US Energy Information Administration. Note: The sites shown include past and present pilot and small commercial projects and the larger commercial Cape Station and Rodatherm pilot project currently under construction.
The United States has a total summer capacity of 2.7 GW of conventional geothermal power, representing 0.2% of US summer generating capacity. Summer capacity is the maximum output that generating equipment can supply to system load at the time of summer peak demand. EGS promises much greater capacity. The US Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that 135 GW of potential electric power generation capacity is available from EGS in the Great Basin of the US southwest alone. Other studies have projected that up to 150 GW of cost-effective geothermal power generation could be operating using EGS in the coming decades, depending on several factors such as overall electricity market dynamics and advances in EGS technology. In 2023, the National Laboratory of the Rockies (formerly National Renewable Energy Laboratory) estimated that 90 GW of EGS capacity could be economically built across the country by 2050. The US DOE has recently stated that there is “potential for at least 300 gigawatts of reliable, flexible geothermal power on the US grid by 2050.” One of the main challenges facing
EGS and conventional geothermal power development is the high capital cost, particularly for well construction. Mitigating the risks of induced seismicity (man-made earthquakes) is another hurdle to be addressed in developing this technology. Developing a commercially sound reservoir for circulation of hot water and steam and being able to properly model a site’s geophysical and mechanical properties, especially for deep well drilling, are other challenges. Ongoing research to improve drilling and operational controls are decreasing the estimated costs of EGS and mitigating the risks of induced seismicity. US state and federal agencies as well as commercial partnerships are helping fund demonstration projects run by government and commercial operators. The Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE), sponsored by the US Department of Energy, is a field laboratory for testing EGS reservoir creation and management techniques. In addition, electricity customers with large data centre needs are partnering with geothermal power developers. Rodatherm Energy Corp is piloting a closed- loop geothermal energy system, optimised to work in hot sedimentary rock, common throughout the western United States and US Gulf Coast, which the company expects will be operational by January 2028. The US Department of Defense (aka Department of War) has partnered with six geothermal developers to build EGS plants to power air force, army, navy, and marine bases in California, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas. And Meta has signed an agreement with geothermal developer SAGE to provide Meta’s data centre operations with up to 150 MW of the first new geothermal power east of the Rocky Mountains.
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