|
Geothermal energy is clean, renewable heat stored deep inside the Earth. This thermal energy originates from the planet's original formation and the ongoing radioactive decay of elements in the Earth's core and mantle. |
If geothermal energy is a niche source of power in California, then it is in good company. In 2025, geothermal energy generated 10,908 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of electricity in California. That puts it well above biomass (4,226 GWh), and sort of in the ballpark with wind (15,172 GWh) and nuclear (17,575 GWh). California’s biggest sources of electricity last year, not surprisingly, were solar PV (53,642 GWh) and natural gas (73,750 GWh).
There are advantages to geothermal power that elude other categories. Unlike wind and solar, but like nuclear and natural gas generating plants, when it is running, geothermal provides uninterrupted baseload power. In 2025, California’s active geothermal plants ran at 46 percent of capacity, a rate of continuous runtime only eclipsed by nuclear at 84 percent. As intermittent sources of energy, the state’s wind turbines ran at 27 percent of their capacity and solar photovoltaic at 26 percent. Natural gas fueled generators, which, like geothermal, are turned off when solar electricity is generating surplus electricity, only ran at 22 percent of their capacity.
The pathway to electricity abundance is wide. An obvious opportunity is to simply upgrade natural gas power plants so that advanced combined cycle designs can convert up to 65 percent of the BTU energy of the natural gas fuel into gigawatt-hours of electricity. Then, run them as baseload plants with 90 percent uptime, instead of the paltry 22 percent that California’s beleaguered fleet delivered last year. If CO2 is a concern, harvest it or bury it. Problem solved.
- Hits: 25
