2016 Geothermal Power International Market Update

A summary excerpt directly from the Geothermal Energy Association’s 2016 Geothermal Power: International Market Update:

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• Between March and September 2016, a total of 44 new geothermal power projects began development throughout 23 countries, adding 1,562.5 MW of developing capacity.
• 5 MW of electricity was brought online when Unit 3 of the Domo de San Pedro Geothermal field was commissioned in late April 2016. Located in the state of Nayarit, Domo de San Pedro is the first private geothermal field in Mexico.
• Croatia, Iran, and Malaysia are all currently developing their pilot geothermal projects, adding 45 MW of planned capacity to the global mix.
• Croatia’s first geothermal plant at Velika Ciglena-Bjelovar is expected to reach COD in May 2017. It is expected to have 10 MW of planned capacity.
• Iran’s 5 MW pilot geothermal plant at Meshkin Shahr is expected to reach COD in the first half of 2020.
• Apas Kiri-Tawau, Malaysia’s first geothermal plant, is expected to reach COD by June 2018. It is expected to have 30 MW of planned capacity.
• Exploratory drilling began in August 2016 for Taiwan’s project for geothermal development at Sanxing. It will take about 6 months to complete.
• The Caribbean island of Dominica is accelerating its plans for development by pushing a new geothermal-specific bill through its parliament and partnering with New Zealand to construct the country’s first geothermal power plant.
• The IceLink subsea HVDC power cable, a proposed 1,000 km national grid interconnector between Iceland and Great Britain, is currently in its feasibility stages. If the cable is to be constructed, it is expected that 954 MW of new large hydrothermal and geothermal plants will be needed in Iceland by 2035 to meet new demand.
• In a new draft of official Indian geothermal energy development framework, the Indian government has set an ambitious 1,000 MW target for the coming years and up to 10,000 MW to be developed by 2030.
• The Indonesian Government is preparing to move to a fixed-price feed-in-tariff to accelerate geothermal development. The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is also working on cutting down the time of geothermal permitting to a process that could only take 3 hours, a similar process already in place for other industries