Based on an article that is based on data from the U.S. Geothermal Energy Association (GEA), “California is king of American geothermal energy, but Nevada is vying for the crown.

Geothermal Energy Association reported that the Golden State far outstrips any other in terms of geothermal energy output, but for new plants, developers are looking to Nevada.

As of August, California had about 2,605 megawatts of geothermal energy production capacity. Nevada, in distant second, has about 448 megawatts. By 2005, California’s geothermal energy capacity alone exceeded that of every country in the world.

But California’s days as the lone superpower of geothermal energy could be numbered. That’s because the Silver State is rolling the plants out faster than neighboring states, most of which have less suitable land available and lengthier permitting processes.

In the last six months, Nevada has completed three new power plants, bringing the total number of operating geothermal power plants in the state to 21.

Nevada could add as much as 3,743 megawatts of geothermal energy in the next decade compared to 2,436 in California.

Up to 1,207 megawatts of that projected energy production for Nevada is in the final stages of development compared to up to just 374 megawatts in the final stages of development in California.

Nevada is also getting the lion’s share of federal funding for demonstration projects, with more than $73.6 million in Energy Department funding. California, in second place, gets about $47.3 million from the Energy Department.”

Source: Las Vegas Sun

2 Comments

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   BriscoPosted Jan 27th 2010 6:46 am

   Hmmm. Most, if not all the remaining projects in Nevada are likely to be less than 50 MW. That means you would need ~1000 such projects to get to 3,743 MW quoted. I don’t see it.
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   BriscoPosted Jan 27th 2010 6:50 am

   Sorry, I meant 100 such projects.
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