U.S. geothermal development can go full steam ahead

Geothermal energy development in United States hasn't look very promising in the last couple of years. For example, United States only added 85 megawatts of new geothermal capacity in 2013, which represents decline of around 40 percent as compared to 2012.

But the future of U.S. geothermal energy sector doesn't look to be that gloomy, in fact there are currently 124 geothermal energy projects underway in the United States, most of which are located in California and Nevada.

California is the leading U.S. state in geothermal energy development, with most of geothermal power coming from The Geysers, the world’s largest geothermal field. The newly proposed bill calls for the installation of 500 megawatts by 2024 in California, most of which should come from the Salton Sea initiative (a plan that calls to extract geothermal power from under a manmade desert sea).

Nevada is also looking forward in terms of new geothermal energy projects. The state has rapidly surpassed its renewable energy goals, and now looks to add even more geothermal energy to its renewable energy portfolio.

Of course, geothermal energy development isn't without certain drawbacks, such as high construction costs and geography, but unlike solar and wind geothermal energy doesn't suffer from the intermittency issue, which means that geothermal power is more reliable than solar and wind power.

Geothermal energy projects still lack popularity of solar and wind projects. Many investors still look at geothermal as risky business but at least things look to be shaping in the right direction, and geothermal energy development might finally take off in United States.