Despite Facing Numerous Challenges, Geothermal Holds Promise in Energy Transition
Geothermal energy has the potential to provide plenty of reliable renewable energy, but providers will have to overcome several significant challenges. Solar and wind have emerged as the world’s main clean-energy alternatives, and countries are investing tens of billions of dollars in developing these two energy sources.
Despite being somewhat overlooked amids the focus on wind and solar, geothermal can also deliver clean and reliable energy. However, geothermal energy is often limited by geographical constraints and high costs, making it difficult for utilities to tap into the massive energy source.
Solar and wind are intermittent in nature, but geothermal energy can provide power on a more reliable basis, making it a great addition to the country’s energy mix as the United States seeks to replace coal-fired electricity with renewables. Unfortunately, geothermal energy represents a small portion of the country’s green-energy capacity and an even smaller percentage of the nation’s total energy capacity.
The International Renewable Energy Agency reports that geothermal barely makes up 0.5% of the entire globe’s installed green-energy capacity. There are enhanced geothermal solutions (EGS) that use cutting-edge technology to significantly improve efficiency, but most of them are still in research and development (R&D).
Rather than relying on natural heat reservoirs to heat steam and run turbines, EGS solutions inject water into hot rocks to generate steam and create artificial heat reservoirs. While those solutions could allow locations that don’t have notable geothermal activity to leverage geothermal energy, the costs involved are quite high, and researchers still have to overcome technical hurdles.
Furthermore, scientists are still concerned by the possibility of deep drilling and water injection causing seismicity, limiting geothermal energy to regions with favorable geological conditions. The recent Global Power Mix in Transition webinar predicts that while geothermal energy will grow, other sources of renewable energy will keep overshadowing it.
Adopting geothermal energy will be a challenge due to the prohibitive costs involved in geothermal projects, especially those that involve deep drilling. With such projects often providing little indication of future success, pursuing geothermal energy represents an extremely high-risk financial gamble. If drilling successfully leads to a heat reservoir, it may not be hot enough to produce electricity efficiently or could be less productive than investors initially projected.
Even so, geothermal energy could still play a notable role in the world’s transition to renewables as its efficiency, sustainability, ecofriendliness and especially reliability make it a good bet for many investors, despite the risks involved. The world’s geothermal capacity is currently expanding by 250MW per annum, and the geothermal market is projected to increase to a whopping $50 billion by 2027.
The overall uptake of green energy is still low, which creates huge opportunities for entities such as Energy and Water Development Corp. (OTCQB: EAWD) that are engaged in developing water and energy solutions geared at remote regions.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Energy and Water Development Corp. (OTCQB: EAWD) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/EAWD
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the GreenEnergyStocks website applicable to all content provided by GES, wherever published or re-published: https://www.greennrgstocks.com/Disclaimer
Geothermal energy has the potential to provide plenty of reliable renewable energy, but providers will have to overcome several significant challenges. Solar and wind have emerged as the world’s main clean-energy alternatives, and countries are investing tens of billions of dollars in developing these two energy sources.
Despite being somewhat overlooked amids the focus on wind and solar, geothermal can also deliver clean and reliable energy. However, geothermal energy is often limited by geographical constraints and high costs, making it difficult for utilities to tap into the massive energy source.
Solar and wind are intermittent in nature, but geothermal energy can provide power on a more reliable basis, making it a great addition to the country’s energy mix as the United States seeks to replace coal-fired electricity with renewables. Unfortunately, geothermal energy represents a small portion of the country’s green-energy capacity and an even smaller percentage of the nation’s total energy capacity.
The International Renewable Energy Agency reports that geothermal barely makes up 0.5% of the entire globe’s installed green-energy capacity. There are enhanced geothermal solutions (EGS) that use cutting-edge technology to significantly improve efficiency, but most of them are still in research and development (R&D).
Rather than relying on natural heat reservoirs to heat steam and run turbines, EGS solutions inject water into hot rocks to generate steam and create artificial heat reservoirs. While those solutions could allow locations that don’t have notable geothermal activity to leverage geothermal energy, the costs involved are quite high, and researchers still have to overcome technical hurdles.
Furthermore, scientists are still concerned by the possibility of deep drilling and water injection causing seismicity, limiting geothermal energy to regions with favorable geological conditions. The recent Global Power Mix in Transition webinar predicts that while geothermal energy will grow, other sources of renewable energy will keep overshadowing it.
Adopting geothermal energy will be a challenge due to the prohibitive costs involved in geothermal projects, especially those that involve deep drilling. With such projects often providing little indication of future success, pursuing geothermal energy represents an extremely high-risk financial gamble. If drilling successfully leads to a heat reservoir, it may not be hot enough to produce electricity efficiently or could be less productive than investors initially projected.
Even so, geothermal energy could still play a notable role in the world’s transition to renewables as its efficiency, sustainability, ecofriendliness and especially reliability make it a good bet for many investors, despite the risks involved. The world’s geothermal capacity is currently expanding by 250MW per annum, and the geothermal market is projected to increase to a whopping $50 billion by 2027.
The overall uptake of green energy is still low, which creates huge opportunities for entities such as Energy and Water Development Corp. (OTCQB: EAWD) that are engaged in developing water and energy solutions geared at remote regions.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Energy and Water Development Corp. (OTCQB: EAWD) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/EAWD
Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the GreenEnergyStocks website applicable to all content provided by GES, wherever published or re-published: https://www.greennrgstocks.com/Disclaimer
