Can Geothermal Scale?
Energy Gang
Wood Mackenzie
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 28 November 2018
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Back in 2008, there was a lot of excitement about geothermal. Many major banks were backing large-scale geothermal projects around the world; a wide range of startups were promising to unlock new resources; and wind and solar hadn’t shown their explosive growth yet.
But then the financial crisis hit. In the decade since, growth in geothermal has been lumpy — relegated to a handful of supportive markets around the world.
Why has geothermal grown so slowly compared to other renewables? What’s holding it back?
This week, we’re joined by Alexander Richter, the founder of the geothermal news site ThinkGeoEnergy. Alex has experience in project finance, research and journalism. We’ll talk with him about the last decade of geothermal development.
Then, in the second half of the show, we discuss the Green New Deal.
There’s a movement within the Democratic Party to push climate hard. What’s behind it? How would the New Green Deal work? (For a compliment to this discussion, check out the latest episode of Political Climate.)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Energy Gang is brought to you by GE. |
| 0:03.0 | GE is installing a new battery storage platform all over the world. |
| 0:07.0 | It's called Reservoir. |
| 0:09.0 | Reservoir allows energy producers to store their electrons, transforming the possibilities for renewables. |
| 0:14.0 | The flexible modular energy storage solution provides up to 50% more solar energy sales |
| 0:20.0 | while reducing construction time by up to 50%. |
| 0:23.0 | Learn more at GE.com slash energy storage. |
| 0:27.0 | From Green Tech Media, this is the Energy Gang, weekly debates and discussions on energy, clean tech and the environment. |
| 0:36.0 | I'm Stephen Lacey, welcome. |
| 0:38.0 | I have in front of me an article I wrote 10 years ago on the latest activity in geothermal power. |
| 0:48.5 | The piece is dated October 9th, 2008, the very moment when it looked like the global economy might topple. |
| 0:55.0 | But you wouldn't know it from my reporting at the time. |
| 0:57.0 | The piece barely even mentions the financial crisis. |
| 1:00.0 | It only hints at potential trouble. |
| 1:02.0 | It's kind of embarrassing really. |
| 1:04.0 | I didn't fully grasp right then how deeply the geothermal sector or the energy sector in general was about to get hit. |
| 1:11.0 | But one guy, then a geothermal expert at a major Icelandic bank, knew a tectonic shift was coming. |
| 1:18.0 | This week, Alexander Richter joins us on the show. We're going to talk about why geothermal has lagged other renewables since that |
| 1:24.4 | moment and where the hot spots of activity are taking place today. |
| 1:28.5 | Then in the second half of the show, The New Green Deal. |
| 1:31.3 | There's a movement within the Democratic Party to push climate hard. |
| 1:34.6 | What's behind it? How would the New Green Deal work? And how would it compare to what's happening |
... |
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