The United States of America Direct Utilization Update 2019

Abstract

Direct utilization of geothermal energy in the United States of America includes the heating of pools and spas, greenhouses and aquaculture facilities, space heating and district heating, snow melting, agricultural drying, industrial applications and ground-source heat pumps. The installed capacity is 18,000 MWt and the annual energy use is 76,000 TJ or 21,110 GWh. The largest application is ground-source (geothermal) heat pumps (88% of the energy use), and the next largest direct-uses are fish farming and swimming pool heating. Direct utilization (without heat pumps) remained static over the past five years with gains balancing losses; however; however, ground-source heat pumps are being installed at an 8% annual growth rate with 2.0 million units (12 kW size) in operation. The energy savings from all geothermal direct-use applications is about 5.0 million tonnes of equivalent oil per year (33.3 million barrels) and reduces air pollution by almost 4.46 million tons of carbon and 1.5 million tons of CO2 annually (compared to fuel oil).