Geothermal energy has many disadvantages. Among the most important are:
- It is only available in a very limited number of places. It can only be viably extracted from a few places where there are heat sources very near the surface.
- The energy must be converted into electricity on the spot. It is not like oil that can be shipped from one place to another and used at any given spot.
- The costs are very high. Someone who wants to exploit geothermal power has to build the equipment needed to tap the heat, but then also has to build a power plant and electric lines to connect that plant to the grid.
- These are the main reasons why geothermal energy is not used very much.