Advanced geothermal: Resources and labour

Oilfield rigs, very deep wells and water for fracturing

What this tab covers The natural resources (land, water, materials, fuel or feedstock) and the labour needed to capture this energy, per unit, with the reason each is needed.

The dominant resource is drilling: more and deeper wells, steel casing and cement, plus large volumes of water to fracture enhanced systems. Skills transfer directly from oil and gas.

Natural resources

Resource	How much	Why it is needed
Wells	About 10 wells (6 production, 3 injection) for a 20 MW EGS plant⁹	Fractured rock yields a limited flow per well, and water must be circulated.
Water for stimulation	About 71,000 m3 for a 20 MW EGS plant; about 22,400 m3 per average stimulation⁹	Pressurised water opens fractures in the rock.
Steel and cement	332 t steel and 335 t cement in surface pipelines for 20 MW EGS (about 17 t per MW each, calculated), plus well casing⁹	Pipelines and well linings withstand heat and pressure.
Wellbore length (closed loop)	About 16 km of continuous wellbore per well pair at Geretsried³	Conduction is slow, so very long contact with hot rock is needed.
Land	Cape Station development covers about 631 acres (about 255 ha, calculated)⁷	Well pads, plant and pipelines.

Labour

Phase	How much	Skills	Why it is needed
Construction and drilling	Up to 80% of geothermal investment uses capacity and skills that transfer from oil and gas⁸¹⁴	Directional drillers, completion and fracturing engineers, reservoir engineers	Horizontal drilling and multi-stage stimulation come from shale oil and gas.
Manufacturing	3.3-3.9 person-years per MW (geothermal generally)¹⁰	Turbine, heat-exchanger and pipe manufacture	Same surface plants as conventional geothermal.
Operation	0.36-0.7 jobs per MW (geothermal generally)¹⁰	Plant operators, reservoir monitoring	Fracture networks and pressures must be watched continuously.
All phases	Could rise sixfold to about 1 million geothermal jobs by 2030⁸¹⁴	Oil and gas workforce	IEA projection with strong growth of next-generation geothermal.

Sources

Innovative geothermal project powers up in Bavaria Energy Institute, New Energy World, 2025
Fervo Energy achieves first power at flagship Utah geothermal project Power Engineering, 2026
Technology breakthroughs are unlocking geothermal energy's vast potential in countries across the globe (launch of The Future of Geothermal Energy) IEA, 2024
Life-Cycle Analysis of Geothermal Technologies (Wang, Clark and Sullivan, Argonne National Laboratory) US DOE, 2010
GEOELEC Employment study, Deliverable 5.1 (Schütz et al.) GFZ Potsdam / APPA, 2013
The Future of Geothermal Energy IEA, 2024