Geothermal Exploration in Taranaki and Waikato: Unlocking New Energy Opportunities in New Zealand New Zealand is expanding its geothermal ambitions beyond the country’s established development zones. Two Māori-led exploration projects in Taranaki and South Waikato have received a combined NZ$5.95 million in government grants to investigate previously underexplored geothermal resources and assess their potential to support regional growth, energy resilience, employment, and decarbonisation. The initiatives reflect a broader shift in geothermal development. While New Zealand’s geothermal industry has traditionally focused on high-temperature resources suitable for electricity generation, the new projects will also examine lower-temperature heat that could serve industrial, agricultural, commercial, and community applications. Government Funding for Two Exploration Projects The New Zealand Government has allocated NZ$3 million from the Regional Infrastructure Fund to the Taranaki Ge...
Global Geothermal Power: Policies, Funding, Wells, Strengths, Opportunities and Barriers
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Geothermal is moving into a broader investment cycle. In 2026, the story is no longer limited to volcanic power plants in a few classic markets; it now includes enhanced geothermal systems, closed-loop designs, district heating, superhot rock, lithium from brines and industrial heat. Across the United States, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Iceland, France and Italy, the sector is being shaped by a simple question: who is de-risking the first wells, and who is ready to finance the next ones?
United States: the next-generation testbed
The United States has the broadest geothermal innovation ecosystem in this group, with a mature conventional base in the West and a fast-growing next-generation pipeline. The main policy signal in 2026 is the Department of Energy’s US$171.5 million funding opportunity for next-generation geothermal field-scale tests, exploration drilling, characterisation and confirmation work, which keeps public capital focused on the earliest, riskiest parts of the value chain.
The best-known flagship is Fervo Energy’s Cape Station in Utah. Fervo said Phase I is expected to deliver about 100 MW, with first power targeted for late 2026 and the company progressing toward a larger build-out that could eventually reach about 500 MW; by mid-2026 it had drilled more than 25 wells and had secured corporate offtake that supports bankability. DOE also highlighted lithium-related geothermal work in 2026, which matters because brine chemistry is becoming part of the commercial model, not just a side benefit.
The United States is strong because it combines oil-and-gas drilling know-how, deep capital markets, national laboratories, utilities and corporate buyers that want firm clean power. Its opportunity is to make “geothermal anywhere” credible through EGS, closed-loop systems, superhot rock and geothermal lithium. The main barrier is still economics: the first wells are expensive, subsurface uncertainty is high and the industry needs more operating history before capital can flow at scale without heavy support.
Canada: oilfield skills looking for geothermal scale
Canada’s policy story is about conversion rather than starting from scratch. In 2026 Natural Resources Canada supported the Canadian Deep Geothermal Roadmap, while Alberta and federal programmes continued backing closed-loop and oilfield-reuse ideas. The country is trying to turn drilling capacity, subsurface data and engineering talent from oil and gas into a geothermal business.
The clearest flagship is DEEP Earth Energy’s Williston Basin project in Saskatchewan, which moved into demonstration power generation and used more than 3,000 m deep wells to tap roughly 120 °C brine. Alberta also has closed-loop and repurposed-well initiatives, including support for geothermal heat from inactive oil-and-gas assets. These projects are important less because they are huge today than because they prove that Canada can create a geothermal industrial base from existing subsurface infrastructure.
Canada’s strengths are obvious: drilling contractors, directional-drilling experience, large sedimentary basins, extensive geological data, strong industrial heat demand and a regulatory mindset that increasingly recognises co-production and reuse. The opportunity is especially strong for closed-loop geothermal, industrial heat and remote power. The barrier is commercial scale: the country has promising pilots and grants, but it still needs more bankable, sustained-production examples.
Germany: geothermal heat and closed-loop growth
Germany’s geothermal sector is being pulled forward by heat policy. KfW introduced a new geothermal financing programme that supports drilling deeper than 400 metres with low-interest loans and risk hedging, and by mid-2026 it also had a broader energy-supply lending framework that explicitly included geothermal plants and heat infrastructure. That is significant because German geothermal economics are tied as much to district heating as to electricity.
The most important flagship in 2026 is the Geretsried project in Bavaria, a commercial-scale closed-loop system that is expected to produce around 8.2 MW of electricity and about 64 MW of district heat. In Munich, deep geothermal already operates at scale in the Molasse Basin, where the city’s wells and heat network show how urban heat demand can anchor development.
Germany’s strengths are mature municipal utilities, large heat demand, engineering capability, drilling expertise and a financing system that is increasingly designed to absorb exploration risk. The opportunity is a large district-heating market combined with closed-loop geothermal and industrial heat. The main barriers are drilling risk, permitting complexity and the need for local heat density; without nearby demand, even a good well can be hard to monetize.
United Kingdom: deep granite and lithium
The UK does not have a large conventional geothermal power sector, but Cornwall has created a distinctive model built around deep granite, heat and critical minerals. The policy environment is still patchy, yet recent funding has come from a mix of private capital, regional support and targeted government assistance rather than from one comprehensive national programme. That has been enough to keep the best projects moving, but not enough to create broad market certainty.
The flagship is United Downs, where Geothermal Engineering Limited began commercial lithium carbonate production in 2026 while also generating geothermal electricity. The same brine stream is now being used for both power and mineral recovery, which makes Cornwall one of the most interesting geothermal innovation zones in Europe. Eden Geothermal is another key site, with a deep well in Cornwall showing that the UK can still drill meaningful geothermal targets even after decades of limited activity.
The UK’s strengths are engineering depth, university research, private investment interest and a growing critical-minerals narrative. The opportunity is multi-product geothermal: electricity, heat, lithium and eventually district-heating or industrial heat applications. The barrier is policy certainty; without a durable long-term support package, developers still have to assemble project finance case by case.
Australia: huge resource, limited commercialisation
Australia has some of the most striking unconventional geothermal prospects in the world, but it has struggled to convert technical proof into commercial power. The market remains heavily dependent on pre-commercial support, state backing and private capital, with no mature national geothermal power industry yet.
The defining example remains the Habanero project in the Cooper Basin, which proved that engineered reservoirs can be created in hot basement rock and produced useful test data, but never crossed the commercial threshold. That history is the lesson for Australia: the geology may be excellent, but the project-finance pathway has not been good enough.
Australia’s strengths are space, hot resources, mining and oilfield expertise, strong drilling capability and a need for firm power in remote industrial areas. The opportunity is most compelling in mining, industrial heat and firm renewable power that complements solar and wind. The barrier is the same one that has followed the sector for years: drilling costs, technology risk and the difficulty of scaling from test wells to repeatable commercial projects.
New Zealand: mature power, new growth targets
New Zealand already gets a large share of its electricity from geothermal, so its policy task is not market creation but market expansion and diversification. In March 2026 the government launched From the Ground Up, a strategy to double geothermal energy use by 2040, modernise regulation and use ring-fenced Regional Infrastructure Fund money to support development. That makes New Zealand one of the clearest examples of a government actively trying to accelerate an already successful sector.
The flagship asset is Contact Energy’s Tauhara station, a 174 MW plant that came online in 2024 and is able to power around 200,000 homes. Other important developments include Te Mihi Stage 2 and Mercury’s Ngā Tamariki expansion, which show that New Zealand still has room to add capacity inside a mature geothermal system.
The country’s strengths are decades of operating experience, highly skilled geothermal engineers, strong utilities and broad direct-use applications. The opportunity is to pair power with industrial heat, horticulture, tourism and eventually superhot or advanced geothermal systems. The barrier is familiar but manageable: drilling cost, data gaps, regulatory uncertainty around new technologies and the need to keep building the technical base.
Japan: big resource, slow development
Japan has one of the world’s largest geothermal resource bases, but development remains slow because of permitting, community issues and the complexity of working around hot-spring interests. In 2026 METI moved to support next-generation geothermal, while JOGMEC continued to play a central role in surveys, community engagement and technical de-risking.
The funding signal is substantial: Japan plans roughly US$690 million in subsidies from the Green Innovation Fund for next-generation geothermal technologies, including EGS, closed-loop systems and supercritical geothermal. That is an important policy shift because it acknowledges that future growth may depend on systems that can work beyond the country’s best-known conventional fields.
The best-known technical reference point is the Takigami field in Kyushu, where a high-temperature reservoir and a 25 MW plant demonstrate what Japan can do when permitting and geology align. Japan’s strengths are advanced manufacturing, sophisticated monitoring, strong utilities and a large domestic market. The opportunity is next-generation geothermal and high-value technology export. The barrier is time: many projects take more than a decade from concept to operation, and social consensus remains essential.
Iceland: superhot leadership
Iceland is the most mature geothermal economy in the group and a global laboratory for going deeper and hotter. Its policy focus in 2026 is no longer broad expansion alone but frontier innovation, especially superhot drilling, advanced materials and near-magma systems. The government’s Climate and Energy Fund supported multiple projects in 2026, with IDDP-3 at Nesjavellir receiving the largest grant for a superhot drilling programme.
The flagship is the Iceland Deep Drilling Project and the wider Krafla/Nesjavellir frontier, where the target is to access temperatures above 400 °C and potentially multiply output per well. That makes Iceland less a standard power market and more a technology-development platform for the rest of the world.
Iceland’s strengths are extraordinary institutional knowledge, integrated electricity and heating systems, experienced operators and a strong research culture. The opportunity is not just more domestic power, but exportable expertise in deep drilling, reservoir engineering, materials and superhot project development. The barrier is that the frontier is genuinely hard: extreme temperature, materials degradation, drilling risk and limited room for error.
France: district heating as the core business
France has built one of Europe’s strongest geothermal heating markets, especially in the Paris Basin. The policy backbone is ADEME’s Heat Fund, which allocated €800 million for 2025 and continues to prioritise deep and shallow geothermal, while guarantee mechanisms help reduce geological risk for investors. That matters because heat projects succeed when financiers can underwrite the reservoir, not just the pipes and plants.
The main technical model is the Dogger aquifer doublet: one production well, one reinjection well and a heat network. In 2025 the country’s geothermal installations produced about 1.97 TWh and served roughly 210,000 housing equivalents, showing that geothermal can be a large urban heat business rather than only an electricity business.
France’s strengths are district-heating infrastructure, strong geological institutions, experienced drillers and a policy regime that recognises subsurface risk. The opportunity is expansion in urban heat, industrial heat and potentially geothermal lithium. The main barrier is resource variability: not every basin segment performs equally, so more appraisal is still needed before capital can be deployed widely.
Italy: the historic geothermal power centre
Italy remains one of the world’s classic geothermal power markets and the historical birthplace of commercial geothermal electricity. Tuscany’s Larderello area still anchors a large part of the sector, with Enel Green Power operating dozens of plants and generating units. Policy support in 2026 continues through incentive frameworks such as FER2, which aims to back both innovative and zero-emission geothermal projects.
The main assets are mature fields such as Larderello and Travale-Radicondoli, where reservoir management, steam production and generation have been refined over a very long time. Italy therefore offers something many other countries still lack: an industrial memory of how to run geothermal fields at scale across decades.
Italy’s strengths are operating experience, turbine and steam-field expertise, established concessions and a strong utility platform. The opportunity is modernisation, optimisation, zero-emission geothermal and possible lithium or direct-use expansion. The barrier is that policy and concession changes can affect investment timing, while mature fields still have to balance reliability, environmental requirements and new-resource development.
What the ten markets show
These ten countries do not represent one geothermal market; they represent several. The United States is trying to commercialise next-generation systems, Canada is converting oilfield capability, Germany is linking geothermal to district heating, the UK is pairing geothermal with lithium, Australia is still trying to commercialise EGS, New Zealand is scaling a mature industry, Japan is funding advanced technologies, Iceland is pushing superhot drilling, France is building a heat-led market and Italy is modernising a historic power sector.
Across them, the same pattern repeats: policy de-risks the first wells, funding follows credible subsurface data, and the best projects are those that combine power with heat, minerals or industrial offtake. The hardest problem is not identifying heat underground; it is proving, well by well, that the resource can be developed cheaply enough, safely enough and consistently enough to attract capital at scale.
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