Worldwide Geothermal Development and International Cooperation

Abstract

Geothermal energy has come of age as an energy source. It is found in most parts of the world and is harnessed by conventional technology. Commercial production on the scale of hundreds of MW has been undertaken for over three decades both for electricity generation and direct utilization. Some 80 countries have identified geothennal resources, and about 50 have quantifiable geothennal utilization at present. Electricity is produced from geothennal in 21 countries (total production 38 TWhla) and direct application is recorded in 35 countries (34 TWh/a). Geothennal electricity production is equally common in industrialized and developing countries, but plays a more important role in the latter. Apart from China, direct use is mainly in the industrialized countries and Central and Eastern Europe. Most of the developing countries as well as Central and Eastern European countries still lack trained manpower, but there is a surplus in many industrialized countries. During 1973-1992, investments in geothennal energy amounted to approximately 22 billion USD. The large share ofthe private sector in the investments shows its confidence in this energy source. Data presented in the WEC Survey ofEnergy Resources 1995 on the "new renewables" (geothennal, solar, wind, and tidal energy) shows that geothennal has the largest installed electrical capacity (61 %) and electricity production (81 %) in the world of these four sources. A summary is given on the activities of the International Geothennal Association (IGA) and other international cooperation in geothennal energy. Some sections of the present paper have previously been published in Fridleifsson (1996).