USA: New NREL Report Details Economic Potential of Geothermal and Other Renewable Energies

Estimating Renewable Energy Economic Potential in the United States: Methodology and Initial Results (NREL)

This report describes a geospatial analysis method to estimate the economic potential of several renewable resources available for electricity generation in the United States applied to several renewable generation technologies under a variety of assumptions—including land-based wind, utility photovoltaics (UPV), distributed photovoltaics (DPV), hydropower, geothermal (hydrothermal resource only), and biopower (dedicated combustion plants only, not including co-firing), primarily from a 2014 perspective.

Geothermal (hydrothermal resources only) is estimated to provide 130 – 150 TWh of annual potential, which appears only in the West (Pacific and Mountain Census divisions), consistent with the location of existing generation.

This range represents from 1.6 to nine times total U.S. geothermal generation in 2013. The high end
of the range is two-thirds of geothermal (hydrothermal resources only) annual technical generation potential of 278 TWh. For Primary Cases 2 and 3, potential appears only in the West (Pacific and Mountain Census divisions), consistent with the location of existing generation. California garners two-thirds of the estimated national annual potential, with three other states having potential of at least 8 TWh, compared to 2 states in Primary Case 1.

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