The renewables cost challenge: Levelized cost of geothermal electric energy compared to other sources of primary energy – Review and case study

Comparisons of fix and variable costs for converting different forms of primary into electric energy performed by national and international agencies as well as by a major German electrical utility consented in concluding: geothermal electricity produced from natural steam or permeable hot water reservoirs is among the cheapest renewable forms of electricity. However, in years to come, geothermal electricity may find itself restricted to the limited number of regions worldwide which feature these particularly favorable reservoirs. This would exclude most of the continental land mass of the earth which is hot but lacks natural steam or hot water reservoirs. This is due to the current lack of proven technology for engineering man-made geothermal reservoirs where natural ones do not exist. At the same time, proven technologies for generating wind and solar electricity are readily available. This may turn out to be a serious competitive disadvantage for geothermal energy as fossil primary energies are being replaced by renewables. Therefore, dedicated and proactive funding of geothermal technology development is required at much larger scale than previously for making geothermal electricity competitively available almost everywhere.