Couertsy: pangea.stanford.edu

Geothermal, solar and wind are all clean, renewable
energies with a huge mount of resources and a great
potential of electricity generation. The unfortunate
fact is that the total capacity installed of geothermal
electricity is left behind solar and wind. In this paper,
attempt has been made to find the essential reasons to
cause the above problem and to look for the
solutions. Cost, payback time, size of power
generation, construction time, resource capacity,
characteristics of resource, and other factors were
used to compare geothermal, solar, and wind power
generation systems. Furthermore, historical data from
geothermal, solar, and wind industries were collected
and analyzed. Suggestions have been proposed for
geothermal industry to catch up solar and wind
industries.
INTRODUCTION
Renewable energy sources have grown to supply an
estimated 16.7% of the total global energy
consumption in 2010. Of this total, modern
renewable energy (wind, solar, geothermal, etc.)
accounted for an estimated 8.2%, a share that has
increased in recent years (Renewables 2012: Global
Status Report).
It is known that geothermal energy has many
advantages compared with solar and wind systems.
These advantages include weather proof, base load,
great stability, and high thermal efficiency. The total
installed capacity of geothermal electricity, however,
is much less than solar and wind. The power of the
total solar PVs manufactured by China in the last five
years were equal to the total geothermal power
installed in the entire world in the last one hundred
years.