Geothermal power has long played a part in the energy mix of countries with obvious geothermal resources, such as Iceland and Japan. Recent advances in two areas, however, mean that geothermal energy can play an increasing role worldwide: new drilling techniques allow users to tap into resources that had been too deep to access; and new ways of extracting useful power from lower temperature geothermal fields allow productive use of resources that could not have been used economically in the past.