The report which is being published by Research and Markets Research looks at the key figures and situation of the geothermal power industry as a whole. Geothermal power is enjoying a resounding success in residential and commercial building applications with geothermal heat pump systems or ground source heat pumps being installed over 1.4 million times in 2005. This applications allows energy be pulled out of the ground and used to heat and cool buildings and water. Due to its direct use of energy it achieves 50-70% energy efficiency, compared to 5-20% efficiency with indirect power generation.
Geothermal power generation got its start a little over one hundred years ago in Italy and reached as much as 350 mWs by 1970. Geothermal power enjoys a distinct advantage in the scalability of the application ranging from as little as 100 kW to as much as 100 mW. The global potential capacity for geothermal generation is estimated at 72,500 mW and at 138,100 mW with enhanced technology.
According to the report three countries lead the in direct heat use; USA 5,366 mW, China 2,814 mW and Iceland 1,469 mW, accounting for 58% of world capacity, which is now at a total of 16,649 mW. Globally the installed capacity of geothermal power generation stood 8,933 mW at the end of 2005. The leading six countries were the location for 86% of the geothermal generation in the world. The USA leads the way with 2,564 mW, followed by Philippines 1,931 mW; four countries (Mexico, Italy, Indonesia, and Japan) had capacity at the end of 2005 between 535-953 mW each. Kenya achieved the highest growth, from 45 mW to 129 mW, albeit as is usually the case with these statistics this was due to the smaller starting figure.
