Two barracks in Fort Lee, a US Army base in Prince George County, Virginia, will be cooled and heated by a geothermal system.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that these types of systems generally consume 20-25 percent less electricity than conventional heating and cooling systems. Additionally, they are about 40% more efficient in the winter than regular heat pumps. Due to the cost of installation, geothermal systems are typically only cost-effective on new construction, such as the barracks at Fort Lee. Ogden also stressed the importance of energy conservation. ”There have been estimates that we can reduce our energy by 10-15% if we could just get people to modify their behavior,” he said.

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Kenya announced plans to build a 2000 megawatt/year geothermal plant, the largest in Africa.

The $3.4 billion Borgia-Silali geothermal project is under development by the Geothermal Development Company (GDC) who plans on building out the project in four phases. GDC believes this project is critical in helping to resolve Kenya’s “critical recurring energy crisis.” The first phase of the project will involve the construction of a plant that will generate 800 MW by 2017. Phase II, with a capacity of 400 MW, is expected to be completed by 2019, while Phase III and Phase IV, each with a capacity of 400 MW, are expected to be completed by 2021 and 2023 respectively.

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University of Minnesota researchers have developed a new geothermal method, the CO2-plume geothermal system, that would use carbon dioxide to generate electricity.

Current methods for generating electricity using Earth’s inner heat involve extracting hot water from rock formations several hundred feet below the surface at the few natural hot spots around the world, and then using the hot water to drive power-producing turbines, a UM release reported Monday. In contrast, the CPG system uses high-pressure CO2 instead of water as the underground heat-carrying fluid.

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