A fully decarbonized grid requires more than just solar panels and wind turbines. The impressive growth of these technologies is a major step forward in the fight against climate change. However, their expansion also creates a fundamental challenge for a modern society that needs power 24/7: they only produce electricity when the sun is shining or the wind is blowing. This intermittency includes predictable daily cycles, seasonal variations, and unpredictable multi-day gaps—sometimes called a Dunkelflaute or "dark doldrum"—that can significantly reduce renewable generation across a wide region. As we retire fossil fuel-based power plants, the grid also loses the physical inertia from their large spinning turbines, which acts as a shock absorber to prevent blackouts. Ensuring a stable and secure energy supply has therefore become a critical bottleneck for a fully decarbonized future.

Solving this problem isn’t about choosing one technology over another, but about building a reliable system from a portfolio of clean solutions. This includes technologies like large-scale energy storage to save solar power for overnight use, and smarter demand-side management to encourage electricity use when it is most abundant. This article focuses on another critical part of this portfolio: clean, dispatchable baseload power. Unlike energy storage, which redistributes power over time, these sources provide a constant, weather-independent foundation of electricity generation itself. Here, we will explore two of the most promising technologies in this category—geothermal and nuclear energy—and what you can do to help accelerate their development.

Types of clean, dispatchable power

Conventional geothermal: Tapping into hotspots

The conventional way of generating geothermal power works by finding and drilling into rare, naturally occurring underground reservoirs of either very hot water or steam. This steam (or steam created from the hot water) is then piped to the surface to spin a turbine and generate electricity. The major limitation of this method is that it is geographically constrained. It only works in geological "hotspots," which are typically found along the edges of tectonic plates, such as the Ring of Fire that encircles the Pacific Ocean. This is why countries like Kenya, Iceland, Costa Rica, and Indonesia are the current leaders in geothermal power. This reliance on natural hotspots is the primary reason why conventional geothermal has so far only provided a tiny fraction of the world's electricity.

Next-generation geothermal: Expanding to new geographies

Next-generation geothermal technologies aim to overcome the geographic lottery of conventional methods by learning to access the heat found in hot rock everywhere deep beneath the Earth. There are two main approaches being developed:

Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS): This method creates a human-made geothermal reservoir by fracturing hot rock deep underground and circulating water through it to carry heat to the surface. Development is happening in stages, from "in-field" projects at existing sites to more ambitious "deep EGS" that taps into much hotter rock.

Advanced Geothermal Systems (AGS): This is a different approach that uses closed-loop pipes. It works like a deep underground radiator, circulating a fluid through a sealed system to collect heat from the surrounding rock.

The promise of these technologies is transformative. According to a U.S. Department of Energy report, technology improvements could increase America's geothermal power generation nearly 26-fold by 2050, turning it from a niche resource into a major global source of clean, reliable power.

Nuclear power

Nuclear power works by splitting atoms in a process called fission, which releases an immense amount of energy as heat. This heat is used to boil water, creating high-pressure steam that spins a turbine to generate electricity. It is already a major source of clean power, providing around 10% of the world's electricity. However, the technology is evolving significantly, with a growing focus on moving from traditional, large-scale reactors to new advanced nuclear reactors that are designed to be smaller and constructed in factory, and transported to the site it’ll be used. These reactors have the potential to be cheaper and safer.

The conventional nuclear reactors that make up most of the world's current fleet are large-scale light-water reactors. While they have provided enormous amounts of carbon-free electricity for decades, their history, particularly in the US, has been marked by significant economic and logistical challenges. These large, complex construction projects have often been plagued by major cost overruns and long delays. For example, the recently completed Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in Georgia came online seven years late and at a cost of $35 billion, more than double their original estimate. This history of high upfront costs and unpredictable construction timelines has made it difficult for traditional nuclear power to compete with cheaper and faster-to-install alternatives.

To overcome the challenges of conventional reactors, the industry is now focused on developing a new generation of advanced nuclear reactors. There are four main areas in which these reactors could be an improvement over conventional reactors:

• They are often smaller. Many new designs are Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), which are compact enough to be built in a factory and transported to a site. This approach aims to reduce costs and long construction timelines through standardization and learning-by-doing.

• They are designed to be safer. Many advanced reactors incorporate passive safety features. This means they can shut down and cool themselves without needing external electricity or human intervention, relying instead on natural forces like gravity and convection to prevent accidents.

• They are more efficient. Some advanced designs can extract significantly more energy from the same amount of fuel, which means they produce much less nuclear waste.

• They have additional applications. Beyond just generating electricity, the high temperatures produced by some advanced reactors can be used directly to decarbonize heavy industrial processes or to produce clean fuels like hydrogen.

How to contribute to developing geothermal and nuclear energy?

Donating to effective charities

One simple action to build out clean firm power is to donate to high-impact charities that help develop solutions and advocate for government support. Independent charity research by Giving Green has identified Project Innerspace and the Clean Air Task Force (CATF) as two of the world’s most impactful climate charities.

Project InnerSpace aims to accelerate the global expansion of geothermal energy by focusing on three key strategies: mapping subsurface resources worldwide (GeoMap), investing in early-stage geothermal ventures (GeoFund), and promoting policies that support the sector’s growth. With additional funding, Project InnerSpace plans to speed up the development of the GeoMap, expand the GeoFund, bring together key stakeholders, and enhance efforts in policy advocacy and startup incubation. Giving Green recommends supporting this initiative.

Clean Air Task Force is advancing advanced nuclear energy as a key climate solution by modernizing regulations, promoting international licensing reforms, and supporting next-gen reactor deployment. CATF also works on super-hot rock geothermal, zero-carbon fuels, industrial decarbonization, methane mitigation, and clean transportation. With more support, it would scale its global nuclear advocacy, accelerate commercialization, and expand work across these critical climate technologies.

Building an impactful career

As a policy professional, you can work on tackling the major regulatory hurdles that slow down both geothermal and nuclear projects. While the goal is the same—to reduce project timelines and financial uncertainty—the specific challenges for each technology are quite different.

• For geothermal, the policy work is mostly about streamlining land use and drilling permits. Because many promising geothermal resources are on public land, projects can get tied up in multiple environmental reviews, a process that can take up to seven years in the United States. A career in this area could focus on advocating for reforms to make this process faster and more predictable, similar to regulations already in place for the oil and gas industry.

• For nuclear, the challenge centers on the highly specialized safety and security licensing for new reactor designs. The current rules were written for older, large-scale reactors and are often not well-suited for smaller, advanced designs, which creates regulatory uncertainty and delays. Policy work here involves modernizing these regulations to create an efficient and predictable approval path for new technologies. This work also has a larger international dimension, involving policies around export financing to help companies compete globally.

As a scientist or engineer, you can work on the core technical challenge for both technologies: driving down high upfront costs through innovation. This R&D work is essential to make next-generation geothermal and nuclear cost-competitive and scalable enough to displace fossil fuels globally.

• In geothermal, the work is rooted in geoscience and advanced drilling engineering. This involves developing cheaper and more resilient technologies to drill deeper into hot, hard rock, and designing more efficient EGS and AGS reservoirs to maximize heat extraction. This is a field where technical skills from the oil and gas industry—particularly in drilling and reservoir mapping—are highly transferable and in high demand.

• In nuclear, the focus is different, centered on reactor physics and factory-based manufacturing. Key challenges include designing Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) that can be built in factories to reduce costs and construction times, enhancing passive safety systems that don't require external power, and solving unique supply chain problems, such as establishing a reliable source of the HALEU fuel required by many new designs.

In business and entrepreneurship, you can help solve the immense financial risk associated with building large, capital-intensive energy projects. Both next-generation geothermal and advanced nuclear require huge upfront investments long before they can generate revenue, which can deter traditional investors.

• For geothermal, the key business challenge is managing exploration risk. Companies can spend millions of dollars drilling a well only to find the underground resource isn't commercially viable. A career in this area could involve working for a startup pioneering new exploration technologies, or developing innovative insurance and financing models that protect investors from the risk of unsuccessful drilling.

• For advanced nuclear, the challenge is breaking the "commercial stalemate" caused by high construction and regulatory risk. Potential customers are unwilling to place firm orders for new reactor designs without a proven track record, but vendors cannot get financing to build the first plants without those committed orders. You could work on creating new business models to secure these crucial first customers, or on project management for these complex first-of-a-kind construction projects to ensure they are delivered on time and on budget.

More resources

Research into the potential impact of geothermal and nuclear energy

• Giving Green’s research reports into geothermal energy and nuclear power. 

• Giving Green’s evaluation of Project Innerspace and evaluation of Clean Air Task Force.

• The International Energy Agency’s report on The Future of Geothermal Energy.

Career resources

• Check out our guide for high-impact climate careers, which is also helpful for careers in nuclear and geothermal energy

• Apply for one-on-one career advice with Probably Good

• High Impact Engineers’ guide for tackling climate change has advice specific to geothermal and nuclear.

For geothermal energy:

• Geothermal rising maintains a job board

• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has an article about geothermal careers.

• Rigzone lists geothermal jobs. (But be aware that some of these jobs are more oriented towards fossil fuels.)

For nuclear energy:

• Advice for careers in nuclear on GetIntoEnergy.org

• Nuclear-careers.com

• Nuclearjobs.org

• NuclearSectorJobs.co.uk

List of relevant organisations

For geothermal energy:

• Clean Air Task Force has a superhot rock geothermal programme.

• Project Innerspace scales geothermal energy by advocating for supportive policies, investing in early-stage projects, and mapping geothermal potential.

• Geothermal Rising is a US non-profit and lobbying organization for geothermal energy.

• The Hotrock Energy Research Organization (HERO) engages in research for enhanced geothermal systems and educates the public on the importance of this research.

• The US National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) works on geothermal research

• The Cascade Institute is a Canadian research centre that has an ultradeep geothermal program.

• ClearPath has a geothermal program

For nuclear energy:

• Good Energy Collective works on nuclear policy and research

• Clean Air Task Force has an advanced nuclear energy programme

• Nuclear Innovation Alliance creates the conditions for success for advanced nuclear.

• ClearPath has a nuclear energy program

• Generation Atomic is a US nuclear grassroots organisation.

• WePlanet is a European and international grassroots movement which partly focuses on nuclear power.

• NEI is the nuclear industry association in the US.

Learning resources

For geothermal energy:

• The GRÓ Geothermal Training Programme in Iceland assists low and middle-income countries with capacity strengthening for geothermal exploration and development.

• Superhot Rock Energy (superhotrock.org) is an introductory explainer for geothermal energy.

• A 3-minute video about superhot rock energy by the Financial Times.

• The Cascade Institute’s technical paper on Deep Geothermal Superpower (2022).

• CATF’s report Superhot Rock Energy: A Vision for Firm, Global Zero-Carbon Energy (2022)

• HERO’s report on Superhot Rock Geothermal: Technology needs for scaling geothermal resources globally.

• CATF’s Survey of Methods, Challenges, and Pathways Forward for Superhot Rock Geothermal Energy

• Think Geoenergy is a news website for the geothermal sector.

• A glossary of terms

For nuclear energy:

• The World Nuclear University provides programmes in nuclear energy.

• The Nuclear Innovation Alliance has an Advanced Nuclear 101 curriculum.