Tuesday, September 23, 2025
A research fellow from the Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University in Colwood, British Columbia, has delivered a compelling TEDx talk that digs into the burning question of why geothermal energy—capable of providing clean baseload power anywhere on Earth—remains one of the world’s most underutilized renewable resources.
The presentation, delivered Dr. Rebecca Pearce, Science Lead for the Cascade Institute’s Ultradeep Geothermal program, challenges global audiences to shift their perspective on long-term energy investments and reveals how short-term thinking has prevented widespread adoption of a technology that could provide generational benefits for communities worldwide.
Geothermal energy harnesses heat deep within the Earth to generate renewable heat and electricity. The technology offers a rare combination of benefits in the midst of a global energy transition. Geothermal provides clean, secure, always-on power generation. It can be developed in partnership with Indigenous communities, supports rural economic development, and reduces reliance on fossil fuels. It can also be co-produced with other subsurface resources like lithium or hydrogen, creating new revenue streams and accelerating the energy transition.
The Cascade Institute’s geothermal work includes comprehensive technology gap analyses, policy roadmaps, and strategic research into superhot rock geothermal systems. The institute’s Groundwork report outlines the regulatory changes needed to unlock geothermal development, and the Institute has just announced the formation of a Deep Geothermal Coalition to advance the sector in Canada.
Dr. Rebecca Pearce, Science Lead for the Cascade Institute’s Ultradeep Geothermal program.
“As our energy demand continues to rise, the urgency to bring down fossil fuel emissions as the climate crisis looms ever larger,” said Pearce.
“My TED talk highlights how we still have options to solve this immense global challenge. We’ve turned to the sun, the rivers, the seas, the wind, but there’s also tremendous power beneath our feet. Geothermal holds enormous potential to provide clean, constant, reliable energy to our grid for thousands of generations to come. This is my rallying cry to unleash geothermal power to solve our climate and energy crises.”
“The Cascade Institute focuses on the high-leverage interventions that could solve humanity’s biggest problems, and geothermal power is the perfect example of such an intervention,” said Cascade Institute Executive Director Thomas Homer-Dixon. “Rebecca’s talk could introduce a much wider audience to geothermal’s potential as an important part of solving the climate crisis.”
The TEDx talk is available here.
For further information on the Cascade Institute Ultradeep Geothermal Program, visit: cascadeinstitute.org/geothermal
Featured photo credit: Getty Images
