| Title | “The Future of Geothermal Energy” and Its Challenges |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ladislaus Rybach |
| Year | 2010 |
| Conference | World Geothermal Congress |
| Keywords | EGS potential, proof of concept, site independence, upscaling |
| Abstract | The widely renowned M.I.T. study “The Future of Geothermal Energy” (2006) determined recoverable EGS resources > 200,000 EJ alone for the USA, corresponding to 2,000 times the annual primary energy demand. To universally and globally utilize these immense resources exciting R&D problems need to be tackled: 1) Development of a technology to produce electricity and/or heat from a basically ubiquitous resource, independent of site subsurface conditions (“EGS technology”); 2) Acquiring experience about possible changes of an EGS heat exchanger with time; 3) Upscaling EGS power plant capacity from the currently few MWe to several 10 – 100 MWe. |