‘Geothermal is America’s untapped energy giant,’ the U.S. Department of Energy said in a report last year, highlighting in its analysis that this kind of “always-on” flexible renewable energy resource could grow 26-fold to generate 8.5 percent of U.S. electricity by 2050. Unlike wind and solar, geothermal energy is a 24/7 energy resource, but the technologies to explore and drill for resources and build facilities make geothermal energy more expensive than other renewables. Technology improvements and cost cuts in geothermal energy could come from what some would think is a most unexpected source—the oil industry, analysts and geothermal specialists say. The oil price crash is already hurting the oil industry , and it is set to hurt oilfield services providers even more, as U.S. exploration and production companies jammed on the brakes and announced 20-30 percent cuts in capital spending. It could be those services companies specialized in oil […]