GEA warned that proposals to close down federal research programs would
cut this figure in half. Its members estimated that of the projected
30,000 MW, "one-half is highly dependent upon continued research and
technological development supported through DOE's research program."
"The loss of DOE's program would be a major setback to both the pace and
extent to which we can expand our use of this important renewable energy
resource," said Karl Gawell, GEA's executive director.
GEA projections show a substantial expansion of geothermal power. About
2,800 MW today are in production in four states: California, Nevada, Utah
and Hawaii. GEA projects that utility scale power production will expand
to include Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, New Mexico,
Oregon, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. In addition, GEA projects expansion
of new distributed generation technologies and nonelectric "direct uses"
of geothermal resources by farms, businesses and communities.
New geothermal development, states the release, could bring in more than
$70 billion of new investment to the economy, producing 130,000 permanent
full time jobs and stimulating significant construction and manufacturing
employment. GEA estimated that this level of renewable power production
would annually offset 266 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions
compared to providing electricity from coal plants, equal to the annual
CO2 emissions from 41 million automobiles -- 30 percent of all automobiles
in use in 2003.