North of the Hot Zone

In September 2007, Glitnir of Iceland unveiled their U.S. Geothermal Initiative for $10Billion in investment.  The report is based largely on the Western Governor’s Assessment and Dept. of Energy Geopowering the West program.  For Washington state, the report identifies the more common and lesser 50MW number.  The full Glitnir report is a great overview, and offers some clear market insight.  Though the state could have 4% from geothermal, there is no real activity statewide. Critical to the report is its assertions of low cost geothermal production.  This final chart extracted from the MIT study reinforces the assertion that geothermal could meet 15-20% of the U.S. electrical needs by 2050.

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