It looks as if Geothermal power could be the genie let out of the bottle to provide us with almost staggering amounts of electricity at just 0.04 cents per kwh.
Geothermal could thus be cheaper than fossil fuels, according to a study just published at NYU Stern. Yet, strangely, geothermal received the fewest Federal DOE dollars invested in R&D over the last 8 years.
Hm. I wonder why that was?
The first study to compare efficiency improvement of various renewable energy alternatives in response to government funding found that geothermal has yielded the highest returns per R&D dollars invested by the Department of Energy.
NYU Stern Professor Melissa Schilling; an expert in strategic management and technology and innovation management found that of all renewable energy technologies the performance of geothermal improves the most per dollar of R&D invested. Wind power was the next, and solar power received the most Federal R&D funding. But they have all lagged fossil fuel funding.
Despite getting the most funding, fossil fuel technologies are no longer improving efficiency much or at all.
Below the fold: one geothermal breakthrough birthed by DOE R&D funding: