Abstract :
Areviewhas been made of all the country update papers submitted to theWorld Geothermal Congress 2005
(WGC2005) from countries in which geothermal electricity is currently being generated. The most significant
data to emerge from these papers, and from follow-up contacts with representatives of these countries, are:
(1) a total of 24 countries now generate electricity from geothermal resources; (2) the total installed capacity
worldwide is approximately 8930MWe, corresponding to about 8030MWe running capacity and electric
energy production is nearly 57,000GWh (early 2005 data); (3) Costa Rica, France (Guadeloupe), Iceland,
Indonesia, Italy1,Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Russia, and the USA have increased the capacity of their power
plant installations by more than 10% with respect to the year 2000; (4) the new members of the geothermal
electricity generating community comprise Austria, Germany and Papua New Guinea; (5) the installed
capacity in Argentina and Greece is now null since their geothermal power plants have been dismantled;
(6) nineteen countries have carried out significant geothermal drilling operations since 2000, with 307 new
wells drilled.
© 2005 CNR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
