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.