RenewableEnergyWorld.com has an interesting story about the geothermal boom going on in Germany. And we’re not talking the low-temperature heat pump geothermal that can cool and heat homes, we’re talking geothermal power plants. The rising interest in geothermal power in a country like Germany is particularly interesting, because like many parts of Canada and the United States, Germany doesn’t have what you’d consider ideal geothermal resources. There are no geysers, no shallow heat spots, and problems with porosity in rock. Yet this hasn’t stop the country from raising the bar on geothermal development, going to deeper depths and engineering the proper conditions to allow for so-called enhanced geothermal systems. According to the article:

More plants — some as big as 8-10 MW — are due to go into operation in 2009-2010 in Sauerlach, Dürrnhaar, Riedstadt, Speyer, Gross Schoenebeck and Mauerstetten. And looking 3 to 5 years ahead, there could be more than a hundred plants. About 150 geothermal power plant projects are in the pipeline representing an investment of 4 billion euros, according to the German government.

The biggest problem is finding the equipment for drilling, but the German industry is gearing up to meet the demand. So what’s sparking this geothermal boom? The German government, like it did for wind and solar, has established a feed-in tariff for development of geothermal power plants that guarantees payment of about 23 cents per kilowatt hour — much less than what’s paid for solar, and this is for an emission-free baseload resource.

I recently wrote about attempts at enhanced geothermal in North America, led by Susan Petty of Altarock Energy. Altarock is backed by Kleiner Perkins and Khosla Ventures, and has some of the top engineers and project developers in the field pushing the concept forward. In an interview for an article I did for the Toronto Star, Petty said geothermal could be economically developed in Ontario today at 18 cents per kilowatt-hour. She added that as we get more experience with such plants the cost could become competitive with nuclear and fossil fuels within the decade. But, of course, it seems Ontario and the rest of North America are content getting their butts kicked by Germany and others who have the vision to start early. When we do finally get our act together, who are we going to call for help and technology? Germany, perhaps?

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