What Can We Do? Meeting the Challenges to Developing our Geothermal Resources

Abstract

This report is a broad overview of the challenges to developing geothermal resources in the U.S. and the policies that can enable greater development. This paper summarizes six months of research that included an extensive literature review and interviews with more than 70 industry stakeholders and experts. Those interviews included discussions with developers; utility representatives; consultants; geologists; direct-use heating facility operators; policymakers; university researchers; clean energy advocates; directors of non-profit organizations; researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL), Sandia National Laboratory, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the U.S. Department of Energy (USDOE) Geothermal Technologies Program; and state and federal regulators (including utility, water rights, and land regulators on the state level, and representatives from the national and state offices of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at the federal level). During the course of the interview process, opinions differed as to what the challenges were, and what could be done about them. Ultimately, after taking into consideration the broad spectrum of opinions (from varying perspectives), the findings of this report represent my own personal conclusions as to the general consensus (or majority viewpoint) of what these stakeholders and experts believe is needed to achieve greater development. The help I received, whether informative, critical, or “filling in a gap” of information, were all indispensable to the final product. I want to thank all who contributed time and effort to help bring this document to final publication.