Real levelized costs for geothermal electricity generation are 4.5 to 7.5 cents per kilowatt-hour – competitive with many fossil fuel facilities, but without the pollution. Delivered costs depend on ownership arrangements, financing, transmission, the quality of the resource, and the size of the project. Geothermal plants are built of modular parts, with most projects including one or more 10–50 MW turbines.
Geothermal plants are relatively capital-intensive, with low variable costs and no fuel costs. Usually financing is structured so that the project pays back its capital costs in the first 15-20 years, delivering power at 5 to 7¢/kWh. Then costs fall by around 50 percent, to cover just operations and maintenance for the remaining 10–20 years that the facility operates.3