Geothermal energy achieves strongest growth since 2019 with 400MW additions

Despite geographical constraints limiting expansion, global geothermal capacity reached 15.1 gigawatts in 2024, with direct heat applications surging 20 per cent to meet rising demand

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GEOTHERMAL energy experienced its most robust expansion in half a decade during 2024, adding 400 megawatts (MW) of new power capacity, the largest annual increase since 2019 and one-third greater than the preceding five-year average.

According to the Renewables Global Status Report 2025 by REN21, at least 400 megawatts of new geothermal power capacity was added globally in 2024, bringing the worldwide total to 15.1 gigawatts.

This represented the largest annual increase since 2019 and was approximately one-third larger than the preceding five-year average.

Over the five-year period from 2019 to 2024, global net capacity additions totalled approximately one gigawatt, with generation reaching an estimated 99 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2024, representing a 1.7 per cent increase over 2023.

Meanwhile, the direct use thermal energy supply totalled an estimated 245 TWh (882 petajoules), marking an estimated 19.5 per cent increase over 2023, due largely to policy-driven expansion in China.

Geothermal energy now generates one per cent of all renewable electricity globally, whilst direct use of geothermal heat accounts for three per cent of all renewable heat supply.

Twenty-eight countries utilised geothermal energy to generate electricity in 2024.

POWER CAPACITY LED BY NEW ZEALAND

The top 10 countries for geothermal power capacity at the end of 2024 remained the US, Indonesia, the Philippines, Turkiye, New Zealand, Mexico, Kenya, Italy, Iceland and Japan.

Six countries added new capacity in 2024: New Zealand, the Philippines, Türkiye, Indonesia, the United States and Japan, in descending order.

New Zealand completed two geothermal power installations in 2024, one triple-flash design and one binary-cycle unit, expanding capacity by 225 megawatts (MW), more than half of total global additions.