Global Geothermal Deployment – the IEA Roadmap for the Future

Abstract

Geothermal energy deployment is progressing rapidly in many countries around the world. In order to assist decision makers with future policy development and investment decisions, a Technology Roadmap for Geothermal Heat and Power, with deployment projections out to 2050, has recently been published by the IEA (2011). This publication was assisted by collaborating parties within the IEA-GIA (Geothermal Implementing Agreement) along with many other geothermal specialists, including members of the IGA, the IPGT, and lead authors of the geothermal chapter of the recently published IPCC special report on renewable energy (SRREN, Goldstein et al., 2011). The outcome of the deployment projections was that by 2050, geothermal would potentially contribute 3.4% of the global electricity (1400 TWh/yr) and 3.9% of the global heat demand (5.8 EJ/yr), thereby displacing significant equivalent CO2 emissions from fossil fuel energy sources.