Flexible Opportunities with Geothermal Technology: Barriers and Opportunities

摘要

Geothermal power has typically provided baseload services, which will continue to be important in the future as coal and nuclear power plants retire. However, new developments that increase geothermal power’s flexibility will allow geothermal power plants to integrate more effectively in electricity grids supplied by substantial amounts of variable power sources. One key barrier is that current contracts between electric utilities and geothermal operators do not address ancillary services.