Geothermal

Definition^1 : Geothermal energy is a type of renewable energy which is generated within the earth and can be used directly for heating or transformed into electricity. An advantage of geothermal energy over some other renewable energy sources is that it is available year-long (whereas solar and wind energy present higher variability and intermittence) and can be found around the globe. However, for electricity generation, medium- to high-temperature resources, which are usually close to volcanically active regions, are needed.

(Image Credit Geothermal Tomorrow 2008, [^1b])

Geothermal energy technologies are distinguished into three main subtechnologies^2, namely flash geothermal, Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC binary) geothermal and Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS). The capital investment costs of geothermal power plants depend highly on local sites.

A geothermal power plant is not producing electricity full time, in order to model yearly production a variable is set : Capacity Factor (%).

Capacity factor^3 : Generally defined as the ratio of actual annual output to output at rated capacity for an entire year.

Data

Most of the data used for this model is extracted from and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)^2, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)^5.

Typical uncertainty and expenditure profiles for a geothermal project^1

Some insight on Geothermal electricity evolution

IEA Geothermal electricity power generation prediction[^7]

^1: IRENA Geothermal power (2017) [^1b]: Vision, G.T.P. and Mission, E.G.S., Geothermal Tomorrow 08 ^2: EU commission, JRC technical report (2018) ^3: Capacity factor. NRC.gov, ^4: Timilsina, G.R., 2020. Demystifying the Costs of Electricity Generation Technologies. ^5: Cole, W.J., Gates, N., Mai, T.T., Greer, D. and Das, P., 2020. 2019 standard scenarios report: a US electric sector outlook (No. NREL/PR-6A20-75798). National Renewable Energy Lab.(NREL), Golden, CO (United States).: National Renewable Energy Laboratory USA (NREL), Annual Technology Baseline 2020 [^7]: IEA 2022, Tracking Geothermal 2020, License: CC BY 4.0.