Geothermal power plants: Resources and labour

Wells, steel and drilling crews borrowed from oil and gas

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 main inputs are drilling (steel casing, cement, diesel), a modest land area and cooling water. Labour peaks during drilling and construction.

Natural resources

Resource	How much	Why it is needed
Wells	About 21 wells (15 production, 6 injection) for a 50 MW flash plant; 4 for a 10 MW binary plant⁸	Each well delivers a limited flow of hot fluid; spent fluid must be reinjected to sustain pressure.
Steel and cement (surface pipelines)	769 t steel and 769 t cement for 50 MW flash, about 15 t each per MW (calculated)⁸	Insulated pipes carry fluid between wells and plant; wells are lined with steel casing cemented in place.
Diesel	About 145,000 gallons for pipeline construction, 50 MW flash⁸	Drilling rigs and construction equipment.
Land	About 404 m2 per GWh over 30 years, against 3,632 m2 for coal⁹	Well pads, pipelines and plant; directional drilling shares pads.
Fresh water	About 5 gallons (19 litres) per MWh; air-cooled binary none. The Geysers: 1,400 gallons per MWh consumed⁸⁹	Evaporative cooling and reservoir top-up.

Labour

Phase	How much	Skills	Why it is needed
Exploration and drilling	11-22 people exploring and 91-116 drilling for a 50 MW plant¹⁰	Geologists, geophysicists, drilling engineers, rig hands, mud loggers	Finding and proving the reservoir is the riskiest, most labour-heavy step.
Manufacturing	3.3-3.9 person-years per MW¹⁰	Turbine, heat-exchanger and pipe manufacture	Plant equipment is custom-matched to the fluid.
Construction	3.1-6.8 person-years per MW¹⁰	Welders, steel erectors, concrete placers, project managers	Plants, pipelines and pads are built on site.
Operation	0.36-0.7 jobs per MW¹⁰	Plant operators, technicians, reservoir engineers	Plants run around the clock; wells need workovers.
All phases	161,000 geothermal jobs worldwide in 2024¹¹	Many transferable from oil and gas	Direct employment in geothermal power only.

Sources

Life-Cycle Analysis of Geothermal Technologies (Wang, Clark and Sullivan, Argonne National Laboratory, GTP peer review) US DOE, 2010
A Guide to Geothermal Energy and the Environment Geothermal Energy Association, 2007
GEOELEC Employment study, Deliverable 5.1 (Schütz et al.) GFZ Potsdam / APPA, 2013
Renewable Energy and Jobs: Annual Review 2025, Table 1 IRENA and ILO, 2026