Geothermal Power Infrastructure Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The geothermal power infrastructure market is projected to register a CAGR of about 2.5% during the forecast period. In 2018, the global geothermal installed capacity was valued at 13.27 gigawatt (GW), representing around 4% growth over the previous year. The geothermal power infrastructure market is primarily driven by the rising demand for energy, primarily for electricity generation and increasing initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, for electricity generation, medium-to-high-temperature resources are required, which are usually located in volcanically active regions. This intensifies the intensity of the geothermal market site sensitive. This, in turn, is expected to restrain the growth of the market studied.

Key Highlights

• Flash plants are the most used geothermal power plants across the world, and they are similar to the dry steam plant. In plants, the flashing process is used to obtain steam. Furthermore, flash plants are segregated into three categories, primarily based on power generation.
• The technical potential of geothermal resources for electricity generation is expected to exceed 200 GW. Emerging technologies, like enhanced geothermal systems, are expected to access the resources, which are inaccessible with the existing technologies. Moreover, the cost of geothermal technologies is expected to continue to drop till 2050. This is expected to provide various growth opportunities to the market studied.
• The Middle East & Africa region is one of the significant regions in the geothermal power infrastructure market. In 2018, Turkey increased its installed capacity by nearly 21%, and the total installed capacity was valued at 1.3 GW.

Key Market Trends

Flash Plants are projected to Dominate the Market

• Flash plants are the geothermal power generation plants that obtain steam with the help of pressure variation. The liquid inside earth crust, with high pressure and temperature, are pumped out to a tank on the surface held at much lower pressure, generating steam to rotate the steam turbine, which, in turn, generates electricity.
• Flash plants vary in size, depending upon the flashing process. Single flash, double flash, and triple flash plants are used, primarily depending upon the power required. Usually, a single flash has a capacity of 0.2-80 MW, double flash has a capacity of 2-110 MW, and triple flash has a capacity of 60-150 MW capacity.
• Flash plants are the most widely used geothermal plant across the world, with a comparatively lower cost associated with per kilowatt generation of electricity, as compared to the binary plant. Moreover, the continuous reduction of cost per kilowatt is expected to drive the growth of the flash plant installation market during the forecast period.

The Middle Eastern Region is expected to Dominate the Geothermal Power Infrastructure Market

• In 2018, Middle Eastern region emerged as a significant player in the geothermal installation market. In 2018, the region added several projects with 219 GW of installed capacity.
• Turkey is one of the prominent countries in the region, and it ranked fourth, in terms of cumulative geothermal power capacity, in 2018. During the past six years, between 2013 and 2018, the country built up more than 1GW of capacity.
• Kizildere III plant, with 65.5 MW, is the largest single-unit that was completed in 2018. Other projects that were completed during 2018 include the 19.4 MW Baklaci, the 13.8 MW Buharkent, the 25 MW 3S Kale, and the 32 MW Pamukören Unit 4.
• Furthermore, Turkey is planning to expand its geothermal capacity to 2 gigawatts by 2020, from 1.2 GW in 2018. According to the Turkish Geothermal Power Plant Investors Association (JESDER), the country has the opportunity to build up additional geothermal capacity of 200 to 250 megawatts per year, with annual investments of about USD 1 billion. Thus, additional capacity addition in the Turkish geothermal market is expected to drive the expansion of the geothermal power and infrastructure market during the forecast period.
• Majority of the Turkish geothermal power plants use the binary-cycle technology.

Competitive Landscape

The geothermal power infrastructure market is fragmented. Some of the key players in the market include Mannvit HF, Tetra Tech Inc., Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Turboden SpA, Terra-Gen Power LLC, and Reykjavik Geothermal Ltd.

Additional Benefits:

• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
• 3 months of analyst support