National Renewable Energy Lab report shows growing potential for geothermal systems

A new report from the United States Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) detailed big possibilities on the horizon for the nation’s geothermal operations and advises public and private interests on the market environment.

“The newest market report conveys that the geothermal industry is poised to make big leaps into enhanced geothermal systems and the heating and cooling sector,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Kelly Speakes-Backman. “These strides outline the potential for the widespread deployment of this important renewable resource.”

Specifically, the 2021 U.S. Geothermal Power Production and District Heating Market Report envisions a major place for geothermal power amid the current push to a renewable, zero carbon national energy system. At least, that’s what the data from 2019 geothermal power production and direct heating markets, technologies, and ongoing trends led researchers to conclude.

This view was furthered by the analysis that increasing use of geothermal energy for the heating and cooling sector, specifically, could significantly aid national decarbonization goals and speed the U.S. effort to slice emissions in half by 2030. This would involve integrating heat pump technology and thermal energy storage and implementing and optimizing energy districts. For the doubters, researchers were able to point to Europe and Asia, where geothermal district heating technology has been widely deployed for some time.

“Our previous analysis of the geothermal energy sector through DOE’s GeoVision report makes it clear that geothermal power and heat can play an important role in our energy future,” Johney Green, NREL associate laboratory director for Mechanical and Thermal Engineering Sciences, said. “To reach that potential, we have technical and nontechnical barriers that need to be overcome to reduce risks and costs.”

Some of that will be technological. The report cited major opportunities for expanding power production through enhanced geothermal systems development, new power plant operational methodologies, extracting critical materials from produced geothermal brines, and tapping the coproduction capabilities of existing oil and gas infrastructure. Some public and private stakeholders are already utilizing geothermal as on-campus heating and cooling solutions. States such as California, New Mexico, Washington, Hawaii, and Nevada have introduced legislation and policies to promote geothermal contributions to decarbonization and streamline the administrative and permitting authorities for its development.

From 2015 through 2019, geothermal power capacity rose just 0.046 GW, although seven new geothermal power plants were brought online throughout the United States. These added 186 MW of capacity, but were countered by the retirement of 11 other plants, leading to 103 MW subtracted.

These findings were coauthored by NREL employees, as well as researchers from the nonprofit Geothermal Rising.