The most important factors affecting the economics of geothermal electricity production are the wellhead temperature or enthalpy, the well flow rate, and the cost of the wells. The capital cost of the powerplant is significant, but not highly sensitive to these resource characteristics. The...

This study is concerned with U.S. geothermal resources, their potential for commercial utilization by electric utilities between now and the year 2000, and their impact on the utility industry. USGS estimates of the resources in identified hydrothermal systems were extrapolated to the...