Utah and its Rocky Mountain neighbors of Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico are creating the Mountain West Geothermal Consortium to streamline the development of geothermal energy, the states announced on Wednesday.
Currently, the four states produce around 100 megawatts of geothermal electricity combined. The interstate initiative hopes to scale that number significantly. The Department of Energy predicts that the U.S. holds 300 gigawatts of potential energy, with 75% located in the West.
Geothermal, though not technically new in concept, has seen a remarkable uptick in interest in the last year and a half. The energy comes from harnessing heat deep beneath the Earth's surface. The heat creates steam, the steam powers a turbine, and the turbine spins a generator to create energy.
