Another Stimulus Payday: $338 Million in DOE Awards for Geothermal R&D in 39 States

The Department of Energy has announced up to $338 million in Recovery Act funds for geothermal technologies research and development in 39 states. The grants will support a total of 123 projects with recipients including private industry, academic institutions, tribal entities, local governments and DOE's own national laboratories.

The grants will be matched slightly more than one-for-one with an additional $353 million in private and other non-federal cost-sharing. Specific amounts of the individual grants may be modified depending on the outcome of contract negotiations between the recipients and DOE.

The grants will focus on identifying and developing new geothermal fields and reducing the initial risk associated with geothermal development through innovative exploration and drilling projects and data collection and development. The grants also will support the use of creative financing approaches for ground source heat pump demonstration projects throughout the country.

The projects are anticipated to represent a dramatic surge in the geothermal industry and to create or save thousands of jobs in drilling, exploration, construction and operation of geothermal power plants and manufacture of ground source heat pump equipment.

Noting that the United States has a wealth of geothermal energy resources, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said, "These investments in America's technological innovation will allow us to capture more of this clean, carbon free energy at a lower cost than ever before."

The selected projects are in six categories:

• Innovative Exploration and Drilling Projects (up to $98.1 million): Twenty-four projects will focus on development of new geothermal fields using innovative sensing, exploration and well-drilling technologies.
• Coproduced, Geopressured, and Low Temperature Projects (up to $20.7 million): Eleven projects have been selected to develop new low-temperature geothermal fields, a vast but untapped set of resources. This includes geothermal heat found in the hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells around the country, where up to ten barrels of hot water are produced for every barrel of oil.
• Enhanced Geothermal Systems Demonstrations (up to $51.4 million): Three projects have been selected to explore, drill and develop enhanced geothermal systems to confirm the value of power production from deep hot rock resources with innovative technologies and approaches.
• Enhanced Geothermal Systems Components Research and Development/Analysis (up to $81.5 million): Forty-five projects have been selected to research and develop new technologies to find and drill into deep hot rock formations, stimulate enhanced geothermal reservoirs, and convert the heat to power.
• Geothermal Data Development, Collection and Maintenance (up to $24.6 million): Three projects have been selected to develop a comprehensive nationwide geothermal resource database to help identify and assess new fields.
• Ground Source Heat Pump Demonstrations (up to $61.9 million): Thirty-seven projects have been selected to demonstrate the use of ground source heat pumps for heating and cooling buildings for a variety of customer types, including academic institutions, local governments and commercial buildings.

   EERE award announcement

   Selected geothermal projects (pdf)

   Renewable energy resources on SGN