Effect of proposed Federal tax credits and forgivable loans on geothermal electric power development: hot line report

The likely impacts of two proposed federal incentives for accelerating the development of geothermal resources for electric power production are evaluated. The incentives are: an additional 20% investment tax credit applicable to both well field capital and power plant capital; and a federal loan for 50% of the cost of exploration and confirmation wells which is entirely forgivable if the wells prove unsuccessful. The evaluations were performed by the use of DOE's geothermal investment decision model (TCN2000), which is presently capable of estimating the probability of progressive levels of development at ten Known Geothermal Resource Areas (KGRA's) in California and Utah.