10/01/2008 11:10 AM

Page: 1  | 2

World Geothermal Energy Nearing Eruption Page 2

In Europe, the top countries in geothermal are Italy with 810 MW and Iceland with 420 MW. Italy is expected to nearly double its installed capacity by 2020. Iceland, with 27% of its electricity needs met by harnessing the earth's heat, tops the world in the share of its electricity generated from geothermal energy. Germany, with only 8 MW of installed capacity, lags behind but is beginning to see the effects of a feed-in tariff of €0.15 (US $0.23) per kilowatt-hour that was implemented in 2004. Almost 150 plants are now in the pipeline in Germany, with most of the activity centered in Bavaria. 

Ten of the top 15 countries producing geothermal electricity are in the developing world. The Philippines, which generates 23% of its electricity from geothermal energy, is the world's second biggest producer behind the U.S. The Philippines aims to increase its installed geothermal capacity by 2013 by more than 60%, to 3,130 MW.

Indonesia, the world's third largest producer, has even bigger plans, calling for 6,870 MW of new geothermal capacity to be developed over the next 10 years - equal to nearly 30% of its current electricity generating capacity from all sources. Pertamina, the Indonesian state petroleum company, anticipates building most of this new capacity - adding its name to the list of conventional energy companies that are beginning to diversify into the renewable energy market.

The geothermal development potential of the Great Rift Valley in Africa is enormous. Kenya is the frontrunner in the effort to tap this potential. In late June 2008, President Mwai Kibaki announced a plan to install some 1,700 MW of new geothermal capacity within 10 years - 13 times greater than the current capacity and one-and-a-half times greater than the country's total electricity generating capacity from all sources.

Djibouti, aided by Reykjavik Energy Invest's commitment to provide $150 million for geothermal energy projects in Africa, aims to tap the earth's heat to produce nearly all of its electricity within the next few years. Further stimulating development is the African Rift Geothermal Development Facility (ARGeo), an international organization partly funded by the World Bank that seeks to increase the use of geothermal energy in the Great Rift Valley by protecting investors from losses during early stages of development.

Industry, which accounts for more than 30% of world energy consumption, is also starting to turn to reliable, low-cost geothermal energy. In Papua New Guinea, a 56 MW geothermal power station owned by Lihir Gold Limited, a leading global gold company, meets 75% of corporate power demand at a notably lower cost than oil-fired power generation. In Iceland, five geothermal power plants planned near Reykjavik, which are slated to have a total capacity of 225 MW when completed in 2012, will provide electricity to new aluminum refineries.

Despite development potential measured in the hundreds of thousands of megawatts, tapping this renewable source of power is still in its infancy. But as more and more national leaders begin to see renewable energy as a cost-effective, low-carbon alternative to price-volatile, carbon-intensive fossil fuels, geothermal power generation is expected to move rapidly from marginal to mainstream.

++++

Data on geothermal.

FROM Earth Policy Institute, a SustainableBusiness.com Content Partner.

« back