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As a renewable energy source that has shown potential to significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions, geothermal energy has attracted great interest in many countries around the world. The abundance of geothermal energy resources have the ability to satisfy the hugely demanding global energy needs.
For easy and convenient access to geothermal energy resources, geothermal power stations are best built on ground where it does not take a lot of effort to find hot rocks and reservoirs of hot water and steam. Regions where the Earth's crust is thinner and heat is as close to the Earth's surface have a high temperature gradient. These places are called 'geothermal fields', as they are suitable for building geothermal power stations. Some 'geothermal fields' are located where:
Most natural geothermal fields are situated on plate boundaries, as there is more hot magma and natural hot springs closer to the surface due to the concentrated volcanoes nearby. The first geothermal power stations were built on plate boundaries.
*A world map showing the major tectonic plates and location of the world’s geothermal provinces (circled in red).
The countries which generate the most electricity using geothermal energy are:
- United States
- Philippines
- New Zealand
- Iceland