East Africa’s Rift Valley spans six countries, from Mozambique to Djibouti. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) have just completed testing for geothermal capacity in the region. Those tests have produced results far beyond expectations.

Geothermal wells able to generate up to 8 MW have been discovered. The Africa Rift Valley Geothermal Development Facility (ARGeo) puts the valley’s potential in the range of 2.5 to 6.5 GW at present technological abilities. So far only Kenya has begun tapping this renewable resource, with a goal of 1200 MW by 2015. That, however, is about to change.

ARGeo, backed by UNEP and the World Bank, will facilitate drilling in the six Rift Valley countries starting early next year. With so much energy available and Africa’s populations in dire need, leaders in the UN and Africa are ready to get drilling. (more…)

Here is yet another sign of the recent trend toward geothermal power. In what should be a significant development for the geothermal industry, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced that it plans to open up over 190 million acres of federal land to geothermal energy production. The land spreads over 12 western states. 118 acres are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the remaining 79 are National Forest lands.

This move may result in tripling U.S. geothermal production – 5,540 megawatts (MW) of new geothermal power by 2015. Furthermore, according to the U.S. Geological Society, that estimate may actually be too low. The USGS claims that nearly 10,000 MW of power could be generated from the aforementioned lands, with upwards of 30,000 MW possible from still-undiscovered geothermal resources. And that’s not to mention Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) which, USGS posits, could offer another 517,800 MW of power. (more…)

Excuse the catchy title…but I imagine that is not so far from what geothermal insiders are chanting right about now. That’s because geothermal power, long lost in the shadows of wind and solar, is finally poised to come into its own. Though the big mantra has been adopted by big oil, geothermal energy comprises a whole different ballgame. To start, geothermal energy is domestically produced and highly available. It is renewable, results in low emissions, and has low visual impacts.

Recently, a combination of government interest and promising new technology has finally caught the attention of big investors. As a result, geothermal is warming up its engines and getting ready to take off.

At last week’s Geothermal Energy Conference & Expo, industry insiders gathered to ponder and celebrate this newfound interest in their field. What geothermal offers, according to Karl Gawell, executive director of the Geothermal Energy Association, is fast, affordable and renewable baseload power. This can easily be achieved, says Gawell, with the rapid advancement of geothermal technologies. In other words, support from government and investors.

Indeed it seems that idea is catching on. One big boost came as a collaborative report from MIT and the Department of Energy which gave geothermal a positive review, claiming that it could provide another 100 gigawatts of power by 2050. That in turn has attracted some major investors. Take, for example, Google who, as part of their RE<C initiative, will invest over $10 million in geothermal energy.

There are two major innovations that are driving the fresh interest in geothermal: low-temperature resources and Engineered Geothermal Systems. Both promise faster production, lower costs, and higher efficiency. (more…)