A Study from NYU
"Geothermal is the cheapest source of alternative electricity and shows the fastest improvement per dollar invested, according to a study from NYU."In a report by Melissa Schilling, professor at New York University at Stern, geothermal was shown to cost less to produce than wind and solar energy. She also notes that geothermal technology is improving at a faster rate despite it being underfunded by the government and investors.
She suggested that although wind and geothermal have similar current costs, "the performance trajectory of wind is already slowing, while geothermal is exponentially increasing." This shows that in the near future geothermal should be the dominant alternative energy source.
Solar, which is commonly thought of as the leader in alternative energy, costs significantly more and lags behind in projected improvement.
Schilling was surprised by the results of the study. She notes, "The findings are very surprising because most people are not paying attention to geothermal. We went into this really rooting for wind and solar, probably because they're the ones you hear about the most, and they're received a lot of investment, particularly solar."
However, her advice to governments and investors was to invest more evenly towards energy technologies. She says, "Solar is so far away from being cost effective, and tremendously far away from being efficient. Right now the bigger and quicker payoff is geothermal."
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