An independent research body claims that geothermal power generation could provide an answer to the growing energy requirements of datacenters.

But there’s a catch. It focuses on techniques that employ hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to avoid being restricted to areas with naturally available geothermal energy, and depends on operators being prepared to pay a “green premium.”

The Rhodium Group says in a report that electricity generated from geothermal energy could “economically meet” up to 64 percent of the expected growth in datacenter loads coming by the early 2030s.

It points out that electricity use by the world’s bit barns has grown rapidly – from a relatively small base – at a rate of 20-25 percent annually so far this decade. This means that the amount of electricity consumed by datacenters in the US has increased from around 2 percent in 2020 to around 4.5 percent in 2024.

Future projections for the growth of US bit barn energy requirements through 2030 range from a relatively modest 5 percent annually to upward of 35 percent, it claims.

There are a number of possible solutions to meet the potentially significant surge in power demand from datacenters, each with associated advantages and challenges. The Rhodium Group puts forward geothermal energy because of its renewable nature, low or zero greenhouse gas emissions, and high availability.

Specifically, the report highlights enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), “a type of next-generation geothermal, in which hydraulic fracturing and h