A home geothermal system works much more efficiently then ordinary heating and air conditioning units by using the earth’s energy to heat and cool your home. Geothermal systems emits no carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide or other harmful greenhouse gases.

These are very different from conventional air conditioners and heat pumps, as geothermal units are installed indoors, so they are not subject to wear and tear caused by the elements. Water Furnace geothermal units are generally very reliable and require significantly less maintenance than conventional heat pumps.

Residential geothermal projects are typically completed with one drilling rig and crew. Installers work with your heating contractor to select the proper method and location of drilling to complete your geothermal system. Most bore holes are 6-inch diameter and are approximately 300 feet total depth.

Nevada is well on its way to becoming the nations leading geothermal energy producer if current growth continues. As of right now, the state has 86 planned or developing geothermal power plants, which will have the capacity to supply power for 2.6 million homes, and enough to power 100% of the homes in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. This is good news for a state that relies heavily on hydro power sources from surrounding states.

14 geothermal power plants are in the final stages of development in the state. These projects would create an estimated 1,400 construction jobs in Nevada once groundbreaking has occurred. “This high volume of geothermal projects moving into final stages of development will likely generate a massive geothermal boom in Nevada,” said GEA Executive Director Karl Gawell. “Along with the millions of dollars in federal and private investment come thousands of new jobs.”

Several companies in the state were awarded over $73.6 million in Department of Energy funding, which is primarily being funneled into geothermal development, and is expected to create roughly 1,100 jobs in the state.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded the University of Nevada, Reno just over $1.2 million to develop and operate the National Geothermal Institute.

The National Geothermal Institute is a consortium of top geothermal schools, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cornell University, Stanford University, the Oregon Institute of Technology, the University of Utah and possibly others as the program expands.

“The University is a natural location for this new national institute since so much of the current U.S. geothermal production is centered in Nevada, and since the University is becoming a leader in discovering new technologies for exploration, production and development of geothermal resources,” said Gina Tempel, associate dean of the College of Science at the University of Nevada, Reno.

The new institute’s goal will be to attract students, professors and industry professionals from around the United States to be educated on everything related to geothermal energy production with a series of short courses and other curriculum.

Geothermal is catching on. Last year, 188 new geothermal projects were started in the US. Together they could together produce as much as 7875 MW of energy. These projects could potentially provide electricity for 7.6 million people, or enough energy to completely replace California’s coal-fired plants. “California could achieve its 2020 goal for global warming emissions reductions just by keeping energy demand level and replacing its coal-fired generation with geothermal,” said Karl Garwell, The Geothermal Energy Association’s Executive Director.

Nevada is the leading state for geothermal development with 3000 MW under development, with Utah being the fastest growing state having quadrupled its capacity under development.

The Geothermal Energy Association estimates that up to 29,750 permanent jobs and 11,200 person-years of construction manufacturing employment will be created by geothermal energy development projects. The projects will represent more than US$ 35 billion of capital investment when complete.

http://www.geo-energy.org/

More than $300 million in funding for research and development of geothermal energy has been announced by U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu. This now pushes Google.org into second place behind the government in domestic geothermal R & D funding.

The projects funded by this program address the need to further develop geothermal energy, including advanced mapping and drilling research and exploration of low temperature geothermal. Some of these funds will go towards ground source heat pump research and demonstration projects, which do not generate power directly, but which use the energy they do consume for heating and cooling in a much more efficient manner.

The U.S. Energy Department has bought a geothermal plant near Casper, Wyoming for an undisclosed amount. The plant was designed to produce 250 kilowatts of electricity and has been operating for over a year, providing electricity to operate oil wells. Ormat Technologies built the plant to prove the feasibility of using geothermal power to generate electricity.

“We’re taken a huge step by proving the technology works,” said Paul Thomsen, Ormat’s director for policy and business development. “The bigger question is, ‘Are there other sites like this throughout the country that we could implement this type of project?’ We are still doing the market analysis on that.”

The federal government plans to continue testing for another two years and collect more data related to long-term durability of the plant.

The Environmental Protection Agency is working with the federal government to require companies to start disclosing the amount of greenhouse gases they release into the atmosphere.

On Tuesday, the EPA proposed mandatory reporting of the gases blamed for global warming from approximately 13,000 companies that are large emitters of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, such as oil refiners and automobile manufacturers, in the U.S. Under the new regulations, companies would be required to begin auditing their own greenhouse gas emissions as of 2010.

“We do not expect to have a significant impact on small businesses,” said Dina Kruger, the director of the agency’s climate change division.

Currently, the EPA only requires reporting of greenhouse gases only from power plants. It also releases an annual inventory that merely estimates the CO2 released from other large corporations such as those in transportation and electricity production.

“Our efforts to confront climate change must be guided by the best possible information,” EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a statement announcing the proposed regulation.

Geothermal power has been booming recently. The Geothermal Energy Association released a report this week that showed that the number geothermal power projects in the U.S has increased by 25% since August.

The report suggests that the boom comes from the increase in geothermal land leases from the Bureau of Land Management along with a significant number of projects being initiated by the U.S. Navy.

The Navy is responsible for developing geothermal power for all branches of the American military and they are adding 10 projects this year that total 262 MW.

Advancements in geothermal technology have also opened the doors for exploiting geothermal energy. This is due in no small part, to the efforts of Google’s geothermal investments. Their non-profit arm, Google.org, recently invested $10.3 million for research and development of enhanced geothermal systems as part of its effort to make geothermal power cheaper than coal.

Enhanced geothermal systems eschew the usual need to place a geothermal plant next to naturally occurring zones of steam and hot water by running water over broken hot rocks to create steam anywhere.

The Department of Energy announced yesterday that it would be allocating $84 million towards enhanced geothermal systems.

But in the current economic climate energy needs are often dictated by money and recent reports have been very favorable towards geothermal power even saying that it traditional geothermal power could be cheaper than coal.

The US Department of the Interior has unlocked more than 190 million acres of federal lands to be leased for renewable, geothermal power development. These acres, which are contained in 12 different states, are reportedly capable of producing over 5,000 megawatts of power by 2015 and over 12,000 megawatts by 2025, enough to power millions of homes.

Unlike some of more controversial oil drilling sites, the geothermal legislation is careful to exclude all national parks or designated wilderness areas from geothermal development. Of course, the geothermal developers themselves will also have to meet local environmental standards and regulations. The profits from the geothermal electricity produced will be split between the state hosting the power plant, the local county and the a federal fund being dedicated to future development of geothermal power.

Google, which has a huge interest in affordable power to run its ever-growing numbers of server farms, is heavily investing in research into the development of geothermal power. In the US, Google is the largest funding source for geothermal research.

MIT researchers estimate that the America could develop 100 gigawatts of generating capacity from geothermal over the next 40 years at a cost of US$1 billion. Australia is trying something similar, but its timetable is much more aggressive, and costs more. “The association estimated A$12 billion would need to be invested to develop the 2,200 megawatts of power, but added the cost of generating electricity would fall to acceptable levels by the time commercial projects were up and running.”

The amount of energy that could be generated from geothermal power is has massive potential. The Australian group estimates that just 1 percent of the country’s geothermal capacity could provide 26,000 years worth of clean electricity.