"A federal government geothermal program based at the University of Utah has chosen 17 projects that will receive up to $46 million from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE).
The DOE on Feb. 24 said its Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) Initiative will support funding for what it called “cutting-edge, domestic, and carbon-free geothermal projects with potential to supply power to homes in the United States.”
“There is enormous untapped potential for enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) to provide clean and reliable electricity to power tens of millions of homes across the country,” said Kathleen Hogan, the acting undersecretary for Science and Energy at the DOE.
“These investments in EGS research support President Biden’s mission to take on the climate crisis by pushing the frontiers of science and engineering and creating jobs in cutting-edge clean energy fields.”
Tuesday’s announcement comes on the heels of a virtual seminar organized by Baseload Capital, a Swedish investment firm focused on geothermal, held last week.
During that event, Kristina Hagström Ilievska, chief marketing officer for Baseload, called geothermal “the sleeping giant” when it comes to power generation. She noted that geothermal today accounts for less than 2% of total global energy consumption, while noting that, “unlike solar and wind, it can stay on around the clock,” and its “heat can be found everywhere on the planet.”
The John L. Featherstone Geothermal Power Plant is located on the Salton Sea in California’s Imperial Valley. Geothermal energy produces more than 5% of California’s power.
The program in Utah includes research and development of what are known as Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), which are different from conventional geothermal resources that occur naturally in the U.S. and worldwide.
Those conventional resources are geographically limited due to the need for underground heat and fluids, according to the DOE, while “EGS are manmade geothermal reservoirs and can be engineered in most parts of the country, potentially expanding geothermal energy production and transforming the domestic energy portfolio.”
... “Enhanced Geothermal Systems are exciting technologies that will enable the expansion and scalability of geothermal energy across the nation,” said Dr. Will Pettitt, executive director of Geothermal Rising, the industry’s professional and trade association.
... The following projects were selected by Utah FORGE, in collaboration with the DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Office, to move forward with negotiating awards. The 17 projects are divided among five topic areas:
Topic 1: Devices suitable for sectional (zonal) isolation along both cased and open-hole wellbores under geothermal conditions.
Welltec / Katy, Texas
PetroQuip Energy Services, LLC / Waller, Texas
Colorado School of Mines / Golden, Colorado
Topic 2: Estimation of stress parameters.
Battelle Memorial Institute / Columbus, Ohio
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory / Livermore, California
The University of Oklahoma / Norman, Oklahoma
Topic 3: Field-scale characterization of reservoir stimulation and evolution over time, including thermal, hydrological mechanical, and chemical (THMC) effects.
Clemson University / Clemson, South Carolina
Stanford University / Stanford, California
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory / Berkeley, California
Rice University / Houston, Texas
Topic 4: Stimulation and configuration of the well(s) at Utah FORGE.
Fervo Energy / Houston, Texas
The University of Texas at Austin / Austin, Texas
Topic 5: Integrated laboratory and modeling studies of the interactions among THMC processes.
Pennsylvania State University / State College, Pennsylvania
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory / Livermore, California
U.S. Geological Survey / Denver, Colorado
The University of Oklahoma / Norman, Oklahoma
Purdue University / West Lafayette, Indiana
Frank Lucas, a Republican representative from Oklahoma and ranking member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, in a statement said, “America leads the world in installed geothermal capacity, but it accounts for just two percent of our renewable energy portfolio.
Developing advanced geothermal energy technology requires strong investment in basic and early-stage research, like the awards announced today.”
Lucas continued: “Our country has significant hydrothermal and geothermal energy resources, and if harnessed correctly, these resources have the capability to provide secure baseload power and energy storage for Americans across the country, which is why I introduced the Advanced Geothermal Research and Development Act and advocated for its inclusion in the Energy Act of 2020. "