Now, most of the resources are utilized for irrigation of oases and heating greenhouses. The government’s policy in the beginning of the 1980s was oriented towards the development of the oasis section which is supplied with geothermal water for irrigation. About 31,500 ha of oases are irrigated after cooling the water in atmospheric cooling towers. In 1986, the government started using geothermal energy for greenhouse farming, which is considered a promising and economic development. The results are that now there are 194 ha of greenhouses (up from 111 ha in 2005), and by the end of 2016 this is planned to be increased to 315 ha.

The geothermal use in the Kebili area is 70.8% for oasis, 27.0% for greenhouses, 1.0% for Hammams, 0.8% for tourism and pools, and 0.3% for animal husbandry and washing. The greenhouses raise tomatoes (52%), cucumbers and snake melons (21%), melons (18%), watermelons (3%), and others (6%) for a total production of 22,000 tonnes in 2009 for the Kebili region (Ben Mohamed, 2010).

No data were provided on geothermal use, thus one of the authors (Lund), based on data from WGC2005 (Lund et al., 2005), estimated the following:

an increase to 42.5 MWt and 335 TJ/yr for greenhouse heating; with the other uses remaining constant at:
0.9 MWt and 23 TJ/yr for bathing and swimming;
0.4 MWt and 6 TJ/yr for others (mainly animal husbandry);

for a total of 43.8 MWt and 364 TJ/yr.