The 2018 edition of the Sustainable Energy in America Factbook – produced for the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) by Bloomberg New Energy Finance, provides up-to-date, accurate market information about the broad range of industries — energy efficiency, natural gas and renewable energy— that are contributing to the country’s move towards cleaner energy production and more efficient energy usage. It has some promising news about geothermal energy in the USA.
After building no new geothermal plants in 2016, the U.S. added the 24 MW Tungsten Mountain plant in 2017. Unlike many other renewable resources, geothermal projects have long project completion periods of 4-7 years. In addition, the technology lacks strong policy support and face high development costs. These factors contribute to the low build volumes.
Another key area of activity within U.S. geothermal is hybridization – the combination of geothermal with another technology to enhance output. Two such facilities by Enel Green Power began operation in 2016. The first was at its
Stillwater plant in Nevada, where photovoltaic and solar thermal have been integrated into the geothermal plant. The second project added a hydroelectric generator into an injection well at Enel’s existing Cove Fort geothermal power plant in Utah.
