The Abyss Pool, a hot spring in front of Yellowstone, Wyoming, circa August 2025. The pool and others like it could be converted to geothermal electricity production. However, while lawmakers suggest using geothermal energy for power generation, it may be best used for heating in its current state. (Shutterstock/ABB Photo)

Geothermal Energy’s Moment Is Heat, Not Power

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Washington is right to look underground for energy security. But the stronger near-term case is thermal infrastructure, not deep-drilled electricity.

Geothermal has become strategically useful in Washington because it fits the politics of energy security better than many low-carbon technologies. It uses drilling rigs, subsurface expertise, domestic resources, long-lived infrastructure, and the language of firm power. It offers a plausible bridge for oil-and-gas skills, a steadier resource for data centers, and a low-carbon technology that faces fewer siting and partisan obstacles than wind and solar in many policy conversations. The Trump administration’s move to accelerate emergency permitting procedures for geothermal projects sharpened that appeal. So did Google’s geothermal procurement with NV Energy and Fervo, which gave the sector a high-profile corporate procurement signal.

However, that strategic fit should not be mistaken for proof of broad deployment readiness. In a longer geothermal assessment, I argued that geothermal should be sorted by resource quality, application, cost, project risk, and comparator. That distinction points away from a single geothermal story and toward a sharper conclusion: the near-term case is stronger for heat than for electricity. Conventional geothermal power works well in regions with high-quality hydrothermal resources. Shallow and moderate-depth geothermal heat can decarbonize buildings, campuses, factories, and some cooling loads. But the heavily promoted vision of deep, enhanced, or closed-loop geothermal electricity becoming a major........

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