The Earth's core is extremely hot ranging from 4,400°Cto 6000°C. We are sitting on a colossal amount of heat energy that isn't going anywhere in our species lifetime. Can we access it? In a word, yes, but really only in places where tectonic plates form junctions with each other, allowing magma to travel upwards towards the Earth's crust where it heats reservoirs of water, turning it to steam. Tapping into these reservoirs and using the steam to spin turbines, a small number of 'lucky' countries can generate a substantial mount of electricity. Of course, sitting on tectonic plate boundaries is not always lucky.
Fig. 1 displays countries where geothermal plants generate some of their electricity.
Figure 1
It will immediately evident that the quantities of electricity generated this way are a fraction of other types of renewable energy. In 2022, the U.S. generated the most geothermal electricity in the world at 19,142 GWh, a mere 0.4% of all its electricity. Iceland generates 30% of its electricity from geothermal with New Zealand a distant second with 18%.
It's Indonesia, a country relying heavily on fossil fuels at present, that has the greatest geothermal potential - 40% of the world's total. It sits on the Pacific Rim of Fire with constant seismic activity and 117 volcanoes! At present, Indonesia generates just 3% of its electricity from 16 geothermal plants. This figure could potentially reach 35% or 29GW. Of course, there are many hurdles to cross before anything like this could be achieved. Geothermal requires massive investment with high start up costs. Most seismic activity takes place in remote regions of the country which would require a huge amount of networking to feed electricity into the national grid.
The Indonesian government set out to significantly increase geothermal power generation, with targets to reach 7 GW by 2025. However, it is falling far short of that figure.
“In the last three years, [2021-23] the addition of geothermal power plant capacity has been at most 200-300 MW per year, when we should be growing at a rate of 500-600 MW per year to meet that target (7 GW by 2025).”
Fabby Tumiwa, the Executive Director of the Indonesia's Institute for Essential Service Reform (IESR)
Like many countries around the world, Indonesia's transition to renewable energy is hampered by rapidly increasing energy demand and huge in-country reserves of coal. It desperately needs investment ('mobilising finance') in an energy resource which is perceived as extremely risky. AI puts it better than I can:
To minimize investment risk in Indonesia's geothermal energy industry, key strategies include:
leveraging government support through risk mitigation facilities,
utilizing public-private partnerships (PPPs),
conducting thorough exploration and resource confirmation drilling, addressing land acquisition issues with transparent policies,
implementing robust environmental impact assessments (EIAs),
developing comprehensive insurance schemes to cover potential exploration failures;
all while navigating the challenges of high upfront costs and potential uncertainties around resource viability.
That list could equally apply to any country considering developing its geothermal potential. For Indonesia, the stakes are sky-high; with coal generating 63% (2023) of its electricity, there is worldwide pressure on the country to quicken its pace of transition to renewables. Investment risk stands in the way.
Title photo by Gretar Ívarsson – Edited by Fir0002 - Gretar Ívarsson, geologist at Nesjavellir,