MIT's J.Tester calls Geothermal undervalued US Energy source

Geothermal energy remains the poor cousin in our current stable of renewable resources, in spite of offering enormous benefits. That’s Jefferson Tester’s inescapable conclusion, after participating in a Department of Energy investigation into the technical and economic viability of tapping into this potentially vast energy pool. He describes the findings of the DOE report to a live and online MIT Museum audience.

The 18-member research team accepted as givens the fact that U.S. will demand ever more power, having just passed the one million megawatt milestone. But there are threats to the supply system, with increasing prices for natural gas and difficulties expanding coal production, not to mention issues around electric transmission lines and energy storage. Renewables like solar and wind won’t make much of a dent in the next 20 years, researchers believe, and nuclear power continues to meet public resistance.