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Geothermal Prospector

Start exploring U.S. geothermal resources with an easy-to-use map by selecting dataset layers that are NGDS compatible.

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Geothermal Maps

These maps show existing and developing geothermal power plants, geothermal resource potential estimates, and other information related to geothermal power. They are updated as information becomes available, but may not represent all available geothermal data.

Resource Potential

The geothermal resource potential map (JPG 1.6 MB) for the United States shows locations of identified hydrothermal sites and favorability of deep enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). "Hydrothermal" refers to naturally-occurring geothermal resources used by conventional geothermal power projects commercially available and widely deployed today, while "Deep EGS" refers to geothermal heat that require technologies that are currently being developed and demonstrated to recover it.

Map of Geothermal Resources in the United States

The map does not include shallow EGS resources located near hydrothermal sites or U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) assessment of undiscovered hydrothermal resources. The map was created by NREL using data provided by the Southern Methodist University Geothermal Laboratory and NREL analyses for regions with temperatures equal to or greater than 150°C. Source data for identified hydrothermal sites is from National Geothermal Resources Fact Sheet. (Temperature-at-depth data for deep EGS in Alaska and Hawaii not available.)

Power Generation

Map of Geothermal Power Generation in the United States

This geothermal map (JPG 690 KB) shows current and planned power generation capacity by state. Data are from the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) (as of February 2015). The numbers for "planned" generation include projects in Phases 1-4 of development and unconfirmed projects. Total installed capacity is 3,522 MW, and total planned capacity is 1,275 MW.

Operating and Developing Power Plants

Developing Geothermal Plants of the United States Operating Geothermal Plants of the United States

Developing geothermal projects (JPG .65 MB) and operating geothermal power plants (JPG .64 MB) information aggregated from the Geothermal Energy Association 2014 Annual U.S. & Global Geothermal Power Production Report and SNL Financial LC. Development geothermal project status and location verified and corrected when possible independently by NREL. When available, BLM LR2000 Lease information was compared with other data sources to verify developing project location. The developing status that is stated for each location is an NREL-defined status which is based on the terminology used by both 2014 Annual U.S. & Global Geothermal Power Production Report and SNL Financial LC. Because of the uncertainty inherent in data surrounding projects under development, NREL cannot and does not guarantee the accuracy of this data.

For more geothermal information, access U.S. Department of Energy's Geothermal Technologies Program, U.S. Geological Survey's Energy Resource Program, National Geothermal Data System (NGDS), or Southern Methodist University Geothermal Laboratory.

For Geographic Information System (GIS) geothermal resource data, access the Data Resources page.

For interactive maps and tools for viewing maps and data, access the Data Visualization and Tools page.

If you have difficulty accessing these maps because of a disability, please contact the Geospatial Data Science Team.