World Bank blog: geothermal under tapped, climate-friendly energy resource
Blue Lagoon, Iceland (source: flickr/ Bods, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
4 Sep 2011
Every country with geothermal potential should get busy developing it. While pricey in the short run, generations of people could benefit from cheap, clean power with readily available technology, so the World Bank in a blog.
In a blog by the World Bank, the case is made for geothermal energy as “pricey in the short run, but as providing cheap, clean power with readily available technolog.”
The article makes the reference to Iceland and its utilization of geothermal energy for swimming pools, heating and power generation. “The benefits sound like an environmental fairy tale: pollution is almost nil, operating costs are low, power generation is constant, and it’s completely renewable.
Given that there are geothermic regions all over the world (think Pacific Rim), you’d expect that geothermal power plants would be under construction everywhere. But surprisingly according to Katherine Baragona, an infrastructure finance specialist at the World Bank, geothermal power doesn’t attract as much interest as solar or wind power.In an article in Handshake, a journal on public-private partnerships, she points out that what is preventing more financing in this area are the upfront costs of a geothermal power plant. They are very high, making it hard to attract investors. There’s also nervousness about causing a man-made disaster by triggering an earthquake. Given that potential scale of climate-related disasters (for example, submerging the Maldives or a chunk of Bangladesh), I don’t understand the worry — human activity sets off tremors all the time.
In the article, Baragona is optimistic about geothermal’s prospects. Anyone who’s gone swimming in an outdoor geothermal swimming pool will probably agree. The amount of heat inside the earth is incredible; if we can tap into just a fraction of it, we can use energy without worrying about its impact on the environment.
Recent developments are promising. Last month, Indonesia, which has the world’s largest geothermal reserves, took a step in this direction with support from the World Bank, which agreed to lend $300 million to build geothermal plants there. There may not be much demand for heated swimming pools in Indonesia, but the new power plants will go a long way towards helping the country meet its energy needs in a sustainable way.
It seems to me that every country with geothermal potential should get busy developing it. It may be pricey in the short run, but generations of people will benefit from cheap, clean power with readily available technology. Why wait for solar and wind technology to catch up when you can tap into geothermal resources right now?”
On cannot agree more.
Source: David Lawrence, “Geothermal energy: an under tapped climate-friendly resource”, Blogs.WorldBank
