CEDAR CITY, Utah — Geothermal energy experts told a congressional subcommittee Monday that the solution to the nation’s electricity shortages is under our feet but is difficult to tap because of bureaucratic hurdles.
Fulfilling all the requirements for federal government permits to open a geothermal plant can take 10 years, according to witnesses at a House Natural Resources subcommittee field hearing in Cedar City, Utah.
“The energy demand is only going to go up,” said Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources.
He mentioned the growth of artificial intelligence as a key component of U.S. economic competitiveness. The technology is powered by data centers that require huge amounts of electricity.
He said, “our broken federal regulatory process” was an obstacle to meeting the demand.
“If we don’t accelerate it, we’re going to be left behind,” Stauber said.
About 90% of geothermal resources lie under federal lands. The Trump administration’s “all-of-the-above” energy policy seeks to increase electrical output from any source available, which could include geothermal.
One proposal for speeding development of geothermal energy is the pending Geothermal Energy Opportunity Act. It would require the U.S. Department of the Interior to process all applications for drilling permits and licenses under existing geothermal leases within 60 days of completing required reviews.
Currently, “even when the geology is ideal, it can take years,” said Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah.
The result is “the promise of geothermal energy has gone underutilized,” Maloy said.
One of the most ambitious geothermal projects is Houston, Texas-based Fervo Energy’s Cape Station plant being built outside Milford, Utah. The state sits atop the Basin and Range Province, where large underground faults allow heat to rise easily to the surface.
The Cape Station plant uses new technology called “enhanced geothermal systems.”
Traditional geothermal systems use naturally occurring water found in permeable rock, normally close to seismic fault lines. EGS deep drilling techniques create their own permeable rock.
“Cape Station represents the start of something bigger,” said Tim Latimer, Fervo Energy’s chief executive officer.
EGS drilling techniques taken from the oil industry mean geothermal energy costs could be 70% lower than now, perhaps leading to electricity for 65 million homes at costs similar to now, according to energy industry estimates.
Geothermal energy plants produce steam to crank electrical generators. The heat for the steam comes from heat deep in the Earth’s crust, meaning there is no significant pollution from them.
After wells are drilled into hot rock, hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is used to crack the rock. Water is then pumped into the well to create steam that rises to generate electricity with turbine generators.
EGS can be used in regions without natural geothermal reservoirs while producing minimal greenhouse gases.
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates EGS could supply about 10% of U.S. electricity by 2050. Currently it provides about 0.4% of the U.S. energy supply, most of it in California.
Industry witnesses at the field hearing said the federal government holds the power to unleash geothermal energy but so far has been its biggest impediment.
“The single biggest hurdle has been permitting,” said Paul Thomsen, a vice president for Ormat Technologies, Inc., which operates 22 geothermal power plants on federal lands.
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