From Washington comes amazing news about geothermal power, with some exciting claims being made about the future of this most valuable and promising of resources.
The Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) have brought out a new report that makes it clear that the geothermal agenda will be very much hard to ignore in the years to come. The report outlines information that points to massive growth in geothermal projects throughout 2009. US Geothermal Power Production and Development Update 2009 identifies a massive 144 new geothermal projects that are springing up throughout America over the next few months. What all of this means is that the total output potential of geothermal power could top the ten Gigawatt mark in 2009.
The report’s author commented that it was pleasing to see a massive increase in interest in the power resource during the period between March and September 2009. And this is not just about new power generation projects. The increase in activity covers new applications tools, such as geothermal-hydrocarbon coproduction.
The incredible increase in power that all of these new projects produces could mean something rather spectacular. If it all comes to fruition, then the power increase could mean that there is enough new power to fuel 20% of California’s total power usage. This has massive implications for the power policy in the United States. Once this kind of proof becomes visible (which it most definitely will as the projects become even more high profile), then the powers that be will find the new agenda even harder to ignore.
As an indicator of how the geothermal projects have become more attractive to states, the number of states that are pursing such projects increased too, with two more states offering projects within the last six months.
There are some issues attached to all of this good news, however. The recession has had some bite, with lenders who are prepared to finance such projects becoming quite scarce. Those who are intending to invest in geothermal projects require a lot more when it comes to business plans and grant proposals. This means that people who are planning projects have to be fully aware of what they intend to achieve. However, the flip side of this is that the projects that are coming out are better planned, and have better projected growth potential.
These are exciting times for geothermal projects. With the massive growth in projects overall, people and agencies who truly see the potential for growth that geothermal power has have the opportunity to make the whole thing very much part of the national agenda.
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