Which countries generate more than 1 GW of geothermal power?

Geothermal is a little-known form of renewable energy that uses heat from the Earth’s molten core to generate electricity. While this unique feature gives it a key advantage over solar and wind power, it is also subject to high costs and geographic constraints. Consequently, few countries are able to produce geothermal energy on a large scale. The Virtual Capitalist website publishes an infographic that introduces the application of geothermal energy.

Global geothermal power generation will reach 16 GW by 2021, with only a handful of countries surpassing the 1 GW milestone.

Country Installed Capacity

As of April 2022, the proportion of various renewable energy sources in renewable energy generation worldwide is:

Type Installed capacity (% of total installed capacity)

Hydro 1226 GW (40%)

Solar 858 GW (28%)

Wind 827 GW (27%)

Other 153 GW (5%)  

— of which geothermal 16 GW (0.5%)

Total global renewable power generation capacity: 3,064 GW (100%)

The main reason for the slow development of geothermal energy applications is that they can only be built in areas with suitable geological characteristics, such as places with volcanic activity. Over the next decade, most of the new geothermal capacity is expected to be installed in Asia. The largest markets for geothermal are expected to be Indonesia, the Philippines and New Zealand, all of which are located along the Pacific Ring of Fire.