US Country Update

Abstract

The United States of America hosts a diverse and potent array of geothermal resources and plant types. High temperature dry steam or multiple flash complexes such as at The Geysers or Salton Sea in California originally occupied the larger end of the MW spectrum. Increased use of binary power plant technology has vastly extended geothermal applications into lower temperature reservoirs, such as those found in the Basin and Range province. New plant configurations are appearing such as geothermal-solar hybrids and coproduction of geothermal power at oil and gas fields, and mineral recovery (primarily lithium) has become an important driver, particularly (but not exclusively) in the Salton Sea geothermal field.
For the year ending December 2021, the total installed nameplate geothermal power capacity in the United States was approximately 3.9 GWe. This is a 94 MW increase for the three-year period since the previous country update, which was based on units in operation in December 2018 (Robertson-Tait et al., 2020). Geothermal power is produced in the states of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon and Utah. Together, California and Nevada host the majority (3,338 MWe) of this generation, with 2,602 and 736 MWe installed in California and Nevada, respectively. Both federal- and state-level policy and regulatory support for geothermal energy have increased during the reporting period, creating a new, positive momentum for geothermal electricity generation and heating and cooling in the United States, particularly during the
past year. Highlights in the federal realm include announcing a federal 24/7 carbon-free electricity mandate, passing the historic Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, appropriating increased funds for geothermal energy research, development, and deployment (RD&D), and increased focus on facilitating permitting reform for geothermal energy projects.