Policy Overview and Options for Maximizing the Role of Policy in Geothermal Electricity Development

<p>Geothermal electricity production capacity has grown over time because of multiple factors including its renewable baseload and domestic attributes; volatile and high prices for competing technologies; and policy intervention. Overarching federal policies namely the Public Utilities Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA) provided certainty to project investors in the 1980s leading to a boom in geothermal development. In addition to market expansion through PURPA research and development policies provided an investment of public dollars toward developing technologies and reducing costs over time to increase the market competitiveness of geothermal electricity. Together these efforts are cited as the primary policy drivers for the currently installed capacity. Informing policy decisions depends on the combined impacts of policies at the federal and state level on geothermal development. Identifying high-impact suites of policies for different contexts and the government levels best equipped to implement them would provide a wealth of information to both policy makers and project developers.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>