My Daily Inquirer

Global geothermal energy use and development has increased significantly over the last five years, with over 10,000 megawatts of installed capacity providing power to over 52 million people, according to a report by the Geothermal Energy Association.

Entitled Geothermal Energy: International Market Update, the report states that 24 countries increased their geothermal capacity by 20 percent since the release of a report by International Geothermal Association in 2005.

Seventy countries currently have geothermal projects under consideration, representing a 52 increase from the last international report compiled by the Geothermal Energy Association in 2007.

The association cited Europe and Africa as the regions with the most projects under development. Twenty-four European countries were listed to have geothermal projects under development, compared with the 10 countries in 2007. For instance, Turkey intends to bring 550 MW of geothermal power online by 2013.

Meanwhile, there are 11 African countries producing geothermal energy compared to only six identified by the association three years ago. Kenya, for example, plans to produce 490 MW of geothermal power by 2012 and as much as 4,000 MW over the next 20 years.

While the United States remains the world leader in geothermal electricity production, with about 3,086 MW of installed capacity from 77 power plants, countries from the Pacific Ring of Fire are catching up in the geothermal market.

The Philippines, in Southeast Asia, is still the second highest geothermal power producer with 1,904 MW, which makes up nearly 18 percent of the country’s electricity generation. On the other hand, neighboring Indonesia has set a goal of 9,500 MW of geothermal capacity, an 800 percent increase from its current installed capacity.

The report emphasizes that regional institutions play key roles in global geothermal development by financing projects as well as enhancing regional cooperation within the renewable energy sector. In France, Germany, Latvia, Britain and other European countries, government policies such as feed-in tariffs make highly risky and expensive projects more feasible.

However, although the study sees that the geothermal market is expanding to encompass most of the countries worldwide, this colossal growth only represents a small fraction of the geothermal potential that the world can use, said Karl Gawell, executive director of the association.

He noted that majority of countries do not fully use their geothermal resources. In 1999, the association identified 39 nations that could source 100 percent of their electricity needs from geothermal energy, but only nine of these countries actually have geothermal projects online.

“It’s as if we discovered a huge deposit of oil underneath our feet, enough to put gas in our cars forever, and didn’t use it; except this is a totally clean, renewable and constant energy source,” Mr. Gawell said.

Source: Environment