Geothermal power production could significantly add to the United State's capacity to generate electric power. A new USGS assessment is the first national geothermal-resource estimate in more than 30 years. The results of this assessment show that the United States has an estimated 556,890 megawatts-electric (MWe) of power generation potential from a combination of identified geothermal systems (9,057 MWe), undiscovered geothermal resources (30,033 MWe) and unconventional Enhanced Geothermal Systems resources (517,800 MWe).

Full development of just the conventional, identified systems could expand geothermal power production by approximately 260 percent of the currently installed geothermal total of more than 2500 MWe. Geothermal energy is an extremely important but underutilized domestic, renewable energy resource. To view results of the assessment, visit http://energy.usgs.gov/.

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