Geothermal is a cost-competitive and renewable baseload resource. So why aren't utilities adding more of it to the mix?
2014 analyses by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the California Public Utilities Commission, and Bloomberg New Energy Finance show geothermal’s levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is in line with other renewables, according to The Economic Costs and Benefits of Geothermal Power from the U.S. Geothermal Energy Association (GEA). But a utility's technology choice can go beyond the LCOE, GEA notes, to “contractual risks or liabilities, planning and permitting uncertainties, unexpected resource risks, actual versus planned project lead times, and other factors.”
More importantly, according to officials at NV Energy, the Imperial Irrigation District, and the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, the common “Least-Cost Best-Fit” method of ranking generation requires utilities to ignore integration costs.
