Power from the earth's heat
With an estimated 370 GW of untapped geo-thermal resources, US authorities are encouraging their development
The development of the US' vast geothermal energy resources is gaining steam. Over the last two years, the number of geothermal projects has been growing steadily, spurred on by an increasingly favourable regulatory environment and heavy investments by government and industry in research that is driving down costs. The US is already the world's leader in the production of electricity from energy derived from the earth's internal heat. Plants in seven states – Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and California – have almost 3 gigawatts (GW) of generating capacity – about 30% of the world total and enough to meet about 0.4% of US power needs. During the first half of 2008, the numb
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