DOE heats up geothermal innovation: $338 M in grants will support 123 projects in 39 states

In Washington, U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu greenlighted domestic geothermal energy development with the announcement of up to $338 million in Recovery Act funding for the exploration and development of new geothermal fields and research into advanced geothermal technologies. The grant recipients include private industry, academic institutions, tribal entities, local governments, and DOE’s National Laboratories. Further, an additional $353 million in private and non-Federal cost-share funds will match the grants more than one-for-one.

The monies are intended to help identify and develop new geothermal fields and reduce the upfront risk associated with geothermal development through innovative exploration and drilling projects and data development and collection. Other grants will support the deployment and creative financing approaches for ground source heat pump demonstration projects across the country.

Collectively, the projects represent a dramatic expansion of the industry in the U.S. that Secretary Chu says “will create thousands of jobs, boost our economy and help to jumpstart the geothermal industry across the United States.” Those jobs would be generated in drilling, exploration, construction and operation of geothermal power facilities and manufacturing of ground source heat pump equipment.

The full list of recipients, project descriptions and award amounts can be downloaded here. Further, GD will spend the next several weeks examining the most intriguing and potentially beneficial projects and report on them in detail.

For now, we will summarize the six categories of projects selected for negotiation of awards. DOE notes that while the announcement covers projects selected for financial award, “final details and funding level of each project are subject to modification based on contract negotiations between the selected entity and the Department of Energy.” The categories are:

Innovative Exploration and Drilling Projects (up to $98.1 million): Twenty-four projects have been selected focusing on the development of new geothermal fields using innovative sensing, exploration, and well-drilling technologies. This category is of great interest and there are a number of intriguing projects being funded.

Coproduced, Geopressured, and Low Temperature Projects (up to $20.7 million): Eleven projects have been selected for the development of new low-temperature geothermal fields, a vast but currently untapped set of geothermal resources. This includes geothermal heat found in the hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells around the U.S., where up to ten barrels of hot water are produced for every barrel of oil. At first blush there doesn’t seem to be anything very exciting here. The technology discussed in the project descriptions exists and anyone with waste heat in any form can be using that technology to produce electricity for their own use or for sale.

Enhanced Geothermal Systems Demonstrations (up to $51.4 million): Three projects have been selected for the exploration, drilling and development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) to validate power production from deep hot rock resources using innovative technologies and approaches. These three projects will potentially get 15% of the announced outlay. EGS is where the future lies and we will pay close attention to all three.

Enhanced Geothermal Systems Components Research and Development / Analysis (up to $81.5 million): Forty-five projects have been selected to focus on research and development of new technologies to find and drill into deep hot rock formations, stimulate enhanced geothermal reservoirs, and convert the heat to power. This is another set of interesting projects that GD will pay close attention to, including the development of equipment that will need to operate in high temperature and pressure environments.

Geothermal Data Development, Collection and Maintenance (up to $24.6 million): Three projects have been selected for the population of a comprehensive nationwide geothermal resource database to help identify and assess new fields. As reported here, Boise State University already a $4.9 million grant to head up the establishment of a national geothermal data system and picked up an additional $1.5 million in this round.

Ground Source Heat Pump Demonstrations (up to $61.9 million): Thirty-seven projects have been selected to demonstrate the deployment of ground source heat pumps for heating and cooling of a variety of buildings for a variety of customer types, including academic institutions, local governments and commercial buildings.