Geothermal Energy Stocks

Why It Matters

Geothermal: a powerful source of clean energy.

Geothermal is the least utilized of all of the clean energy sources. As its name suggests, geothermal energy is heat from the Earth. By drilling a few miles into the ground, geothermal plants access the steam that rises from underground water reservoirs that are heated by the Earth's core that's 6,000°C. That steam is channeled into turbines that generate electricity. Once the steam cools off and turns back into water, geothermal plants push the water back into the ground to be heated up again. It's a technology that can endlessly generate electricity with little or no greenhouse gas emissions.

We need more investments to scale geothermal.

Geothermal power accounted for only 0.34% of global electricity generation in 2018, and its growth isn't keeping pace with what's needed to get to a decarbonized world. There are several reasons for this, ranging from technological to regulatory. But by far the biggest challenge to expanding geothermal capacity is the fact that geothermal isn't attractive to short-term oriented investors because it takes years to develop. 

But while it may not yield immediate returns, once a geothermal location is identified and infrastructure developed, it's a source that can potentially generate clean energy for decades. 

These companies are making it happen.

Companies that make geothermal energy systems need to scale, and they need to scale fast. For that to happen, they need capital. The Climate Index includes geothermal companies that are traded on US stock markets and that derive more revenue from geothermal solutions than from revenue that depends on fossil fuels. And as always, we don't include punny stocks whose share prices were less than $0.50 in our last update. 

If you are a Carbon Collective member, you own all of these companies through the Climate Index.