Global:

Report: 2012 - Average Year of Growth for Geothermal but Vast Potential... (renewableenergyfocus.com)

A special Renewable Energy Focus power generation focus previews REMIPEG's latest update, carried out in the first four months of 2013 by Lahmeyer International, and presents an overview for each renewable power sector, based on scenarios up to the end of 2012.

The global geothermal energy market continued growing in 2012; however the newly installed capacity of 353 MW represents average growth in respect to the last six years (547 MW, 317 MW, 338 MW, 392 MW and 225 MW; 2011-2007 respectively). The US contributed 147 MW of newly installed capacity for the year, and another 207 MW is a result of statistical revision done by the U.S. Geothermal Energy Association (GEA). Hence, the US has around 3386 MW of installed geothermal plant and remains the largest national market.

Nicaragua (36 MW) and Mexico (25 MW) also completed expansions of existing geothermal power plants, while Indonesia completed construction and expansion respectively of three plants with a combined capacity of 135 MW. Kenya brought a 5 MW installation online, while in Germany a binary cycle plant started production with a capacity of 4.8 MW. Thus, in 2012 cumulative geothermal capacity globally increased to around 11.57 GW.

Overall, the geothermal industry is currently developing 175 geothermal projects with a total potential capacity of 2.5–2.6 GW, around 800 MW of which is at an advanced stage. The United States is leading this. While its 3386 MW across eight states represents 28.6 % of worldwide geothermal capacity, the GEA says significant growth is expected in 2013 and subsequent years. In 2013 up to 14 plants could begin operation, another nine plants in 2014 and 10 more in 2015.

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