Strategies for compensating for higher costs of geothermal electricity with environmental benefits

After very high growth in the 1980s, geothermal electricity production has slowed in the mid- and late-1990s. While Japanese, Indonesian and Philippin e geothermal growth has remained high as a consequence of supportive govern ment policies, geothermal electricity production has been flat or reduced i n much of Europe and North America. Low prices for coal and natural gas, co mbined with deregulation, means that in much of the world electricity from new fuel-burning electricity plants can be provided at half the cost of new geothermal electricity, Cost-cutting must be pursued, but is unlikely to c lose the price gap by itself. Geothermal production is widely perceived as being environmentally clean, but this is not unambiguously true, and requir es reinjection to be fully realized, Strategies for monetizing the environm ental advantages of geothermal, including the carbon tax, are discussed. (C ) 1999 CNR. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd, All rights reserved.