Geothermal energy’s potential contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions is enormous. Just 0.1 percent of the Earth’s heat could provide enough energy to power the world for two million years. And every gigawatt of energy from geothermal resources offsets approximately 380 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Yet geothermal energy is responsible for less than 1% of the total electricity generation in the United States.
So why has it been so slow to tap into this vast and essentially inexhaustible resource? And how might that soon change?