Among renewable resources, one of the most valuable attributes of geothermal electricity is the baseload characteristic of the energy resource. That is, geothermal electricity generators are able to deliver a stable level of power production over time. Yet for better or worse, this baseload characteristic — along with other notable factors such as size constraints and varying market segments — reveals that interconnecting a geothermal plant to a transmission or distribution system poses unique challenges compared to other renewable energy technologies.

A recent report by NREL, “Geothermal Power and Interconnection: The Economics of Getting to the Market,” delves into the specialized world of geothermal transmission. Among other things, this report finds that from a transmission perspective, not all types of geothermal energy technologies are treated equally. Conventional hydrothermal technologies likely fit differently into the transmission framework than do emerging geothermal technologies such as enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), co-produced geothermal with oil and gas facilities and geopressured geothermal.

via Geothermal Transmission 101: Technologies Are Not Treated Equally | Renewable Energy News Article.