The state of exploitation of geothermal energy and some interesting achievements in geothermal research and development in the world

• Published in: Geologija
• Main Authors: Dušan Rajver, Nina Rman, Andrej Lapanje
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Slovenian
• Published: Geological Survey of Slovenia 2016
• Subjects: geothermal energy; geothermal electricity; direct use of geothermal energy; geothermal heat; Geology; QE1-996.5; New Zealand; Iceland
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5474/geologija.2016.007; https://doaj.org/article/0974709e28fd4c6c9a545bfb4fac54a6

The article presents the latest status of geothermal energy use worldwide and the comparison with the previous period, both in electricity generation as well as in the various categories of direct use. Electricity production takes place in 26 countries and has at the end of 2014 reached 73,700 GWh from geothermal power plants with nearly 12.8 GW of installed power. This is still only 0.31 % of the total electricity produced in the world and it will be interesting to monitor the future share of geothermal energy in doing so. In the last 5-year period the development was particularly rapid in countries where it was slower in the past and, however, with favorable geological (tectonic) conditions (Iceland, Kenya, New Zealand, Turkey, etc.). Direct use of geothermal energy covers a signifiant number of countries, today there are 82, although some of them are such where it takes place almost solely by geothermal (ground-source) heat pumps (GHP) on shallow subsurface energy (Finland). Installed capacity in the direct use is 70,885 MWt and geothermal energy used, including the GHP, is 592,638 TJ/year (end of 2014). Within the used energy the share of GHP dominates with 55.2 %, followed by the bathing and swimming pools complexes incl. balneology by 20.2 %, space heating by 15.0 % (the majority of it is district heating), heating of greenhouses and soil with 4.9 %, etc. The second part presents some interesting technological and scientifi innovations in exploration and exploitation of geothermal energy.