Applications
| Country | Production PJ/yr |
Capacity GW |
Capacity Factor |
Dominant applications |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| China | 45.38 | 3.69 | 39% | bathing |
| Sweden | 43.2 | 4.2 | 33% | heat pumps |
| USA | 31.24 | 7.82 | 13% | heat pumps |
| Turkey | 24.84 | 1.5 | 53% | district heating |
| Iceland | 24.5 | 1.84 | 42% | district heating |
| Japan | 10.3 | 0.82 | 40% | bathing (onsens) |
| Hungary | 7.94 | 0.69 | 36% | spas/greenhouses |
| Italy | 7.55 | 0.61 | 39% | spas/space heating |
| New Zealand | 7.09 | 0.31 | 73% | industrial uses |
| 63 others | 71 | 6.8 | ||
| Total | 273 | 28 | 31% | space heating |
There are a wide variety of applications for cheap geothermal heat. In 2004 more than half of direct geothermal heat was used for space heating, and a third was used for spas. The remainder was used for a variety of industrial processes, desalination, domestic hot water, and agricultural applications. The cities of Reykjavík and Akureyri pipe hot water from geothermal plants under roads and pavements to melt snow. Geothermal desalination has been demonstrated.
Geothermal systems tend to benefit from economies of scale, so space heating power is often distributed to multiple buildings, sometimes whole communities. This technique, long practiced throughout the world in locations such as Reykjavik, Iceland, Boise, Idaho, and Klamath Falls, Oregon is known as district heating.
Read more about this topic: Geothermal Heating