Why Geothermal
Geothermal is the rare renewable that runs around the clock. Because it taps the steady heat stored beneath the earth's surface rather than the sun or the wind, a geothermal plant delivers firm, baseload-grade power with a capacity factor near 90 percent — among the highest of any generation source. That 24/7 output is unaffected by clouds, calm nights, or seasonal swings, making geothermal a dependable backbone for the grid.
- Firm and always-on: capacity factors around 90 percent, comparable to baseload — it produces power day and night, in every season
- Weather-independent: output does not fall when the sun sets or the wind drops, removing the intermittency that constrains solar and wind
- Small footprint: a geothermal plant occupies far less land per megawatt than most other renewables, leaving the surface largely undisturbed
- Complementary: firm geothermal pairs naturally with variable solar and wind, filling the gaps they leave behind
Conventional Geothermal
Today's commercial geothermal taps hydrothermal resources — natural reservoirs of hot water and steam — concentrated across the American West. The Geysers in Northern California is the largest geothermal field in the world, and productive resources also span Nevada, Utah, and California's Imperial Valley. These plants have delivered clean firm power to the Western grid for decades.
Beyond power generation, geothermal heat pumps use the stable temperature of the shallow ground to heat and cool buildings with dramatically higher efficiency than conventional HVAC — cutting energy use for space conditioning across homes, campuses, and commercial facilities.
Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS)
The breakthrough reshaping the sector is Enhanced Geothermal Systems. Conventional geothermal needs a rare combination of heat, water, and permeable rock occurring naturally together. EGS removes that constraint by engineering reservoirs in hot dry rock — using directional drilling and reservoir-stimulation techniques borrowed from the shale revolution to create permeability where none existed, then circulating water through the engineered fractures to harvest the heat.
Because hot rock lies beneath nearly the entire country, EGS has the potential to scale firm, clean geothermal power almost anywhere in the nation — not just the volcanic West. The U.S. Department of Energy's Enhanced Geothermal Shot aims to cut EGS costs by 90 percent by 2035, putting nationwide geothermal within reach.
Lithium Co-Production — Energy + Critical Minerals
Some geothermal resources offer a second prize. The superheated brines pumped to the surface — especially at California's Salton Sea geothermal field — are rich in dissolved lithium. New direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology can pull that lithium out of the brine as it cycles through the power plant, then return the spent brine underground.
One operation, two outputs: a single Salton Sea facility can generate firm clean electricity and produce battery-grade domestic lithium from the very same brine. This is a flagship example of marrying generation directly to the critical-minerals supply chain — clean power and the lithium that feeds American battery storage coming from one well field.
Geothermal in the All-of-the-Above Mix
Geothermal earns its place as the firm renewable in a balanced energy strategy. It pairs with battery storage to deliver smooth, dispatchable clean power and supports grid stability with steady baseload output — strengthening the broader energy value chain from minerals to megawatts.
Powering 24/7 load: geothermal's always-on output is an ideal match for AI data centers, which demand constant, reliable, carbon-free power every hour of every day — a load that variable renewables alone cannot serve.