Magazine issueFree to read
Central Asia’s Untapped Heat: A New Geothermal Frontier
Highlights
- Uzbekistan’s total energy consumption could nearly double by 2035.
- Quickest gains: district heating, industrial process heat and year-round greenhouse farming.
- Areas of high heat and cooling demand overlap with sedimentary basins that have favourable geothermal conditions.
- Geothermal heat is often viable at moderate depths, especially with heat pumps.
- The Amu Darya and Fergana oil and gas basins are named as places where existing wells could support feasibility studies and pilots.
Keywords
- Central Asia
- Uzbekistan
- district heating
- heat pumps
- oil and gas wells
- geothermal policy
Summary
The International Geothermal Association’s magazine devotes its January 2026 issue to Central Asia. It opens with Uzbekistan’s first international geothermal forum and argues that geothermal energy has moved from an academic topic onto the region’s policy agenda.
In “Why Uzbekistan Can Lead”, IGA representative Zemfira Djemileva argues that geothermal energy is a system solution for a country whose energy use is growing fast, with the quickest returns in district heating, industrial heat and greenhouses, and with wells from oil and gas exploration available for reuse.
In “From Maps to Markets”, based on a technical analysis presented by Dave Waters, the magazine finds that heat demand in Uzbekistan overlaps with favourable sedimentary basins, that moderate depths combined with heat pumps are often enough, and that the Amu Darya and Fergana basins are natural places to start. A closing overview compares pathways for Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.
How to cite
International Geothermal Association (2026). Central Asia’s Untapped Heat: A New Geothermal Frontier. GLOBAL_GT, January 2026. https://worldgeothermal.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Global_GT-January-2026-HD.pdf
In our news
IGA magazine presents Uzbekistan as a potential geothermal leader in Central Asia5 February 2026