Geothermal energy development is picking up

Today, geothermal power is generated in 27 countries with a total installed geothermal power generation capacity of 14,600 MW at year-end 2018. With ongoing development and development ambitions the number of countries that could be producing geothermal power could increase to 82 countries.

There currently is ongoing and planned development of about 15,000 MW in power generation capacity, which would more than double the current installed capacity. Estimating development over the next 5 year period, IGA expects development of around 4,100 MW in capacity, picking up pace compared to the 4,341 MW added in the time period of 2008 to 2018. Key growth markets are Asia, Africa, Europe and North America.

It is clear that support mechanisms introduced by multilaterals, such as the World Bank, and development banks have been of help for projects getting over the big hurdles in the early stages of geothermal development, how sustainable that support is for further development will have to be seen.

Source: IGA