DOE Seeks to Invest up to $90M in Advanced Geothermal Energy Technology, Research

June 26, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) issued a funding opportunity announcement (FOA) for up to $90 million over four years to advance the R&D and demonstration of next-generation geothermal energy technology which will harness the earth's interior heat extracted from hot water or rocks.

DOE has up to $10.5 million available for immediate award under this FOA, with the remainder subject to change and to Congressional appropriations.

The FOA addresses the need for additional technical understanding of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) to prepare the technology for commercial readiness.

EGS are systems of engineered reservoirs created by drilling deep wells into hot rock, fracturing the rock and circulating a fluid through the wells to extract heat.

According to a recent study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), The Future of Geothermal Energy, EGS represents a large, indigenous resource that, with a reasonable investment in R&D, could provide the U.S. with 100,000 megawatts of cost-competitive electricity, generating capacity by 2050 or 20% of current electricity generation.

While EGS reservoirs have been designed, built and tested in various locations throughout the world, a number of technical hurdles remain before EGS production facilities will reach commercial production rates and life spans, said DOE. Through this FOA, DOE will concentrate on issues related to EGS reservoir creation, operation and management.

In the long-term, the work aims to create, sustain, replicate and commercialize EGS technologies, while in the short-term these projects will develop and demonstrate technologies that are useful to both hydrothermal and EGS geothermal projects, said DOE.

"Geothermal energy is a clean, reliable, scalable, renewable energy source and these geothermal projects will help the U.S. tap domestic heat sources that were previously out of reach," Assistant Secretary of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Andy Karsner said.

To reach these goals, the FOA will address two topic areas:

• Component Technologies R&D
  The R&D projects under this topic area will meet the R&D needs identified in the DOE EGS Technology Evaluation Report (2008). Projects will address aspects of engineered reservoir creation, management and utilization at high temperatures up to 300¡C and depths as great as 10,000 meters.

• System Demonstrations
  The projects under this topic area will allow testing and validation of stimulation techniques for improving productivity of wells or increasing inter-well connectivity at existing geothermal fields. Use of available or experimental technologies from geothermal, petroleum or other relevant industries will be considered.

DOE anticipates making up to 26 awards through this competitive funding opportunity, which is open to industry and academia. $10.5 million in funding is available for fiscal year (FY) 2008. Up to an additional $30 million is expected to be available for awards in FY 2009, subject to annual Congressional appropriations. Up to $49.5 million is expected to be available in FY 2010, subject to change and Congressional appropriations.

A minimum of 20% private sector cost share is required for R&D projects. Recipient cost share requirements for demonstration projects will be up to 50% and vary by both the phase of the award and the activities within a particular phase. Applications for this funding opportunity are due on or before Aug. 12, 2008.

More information about this FOA is available on the Geothermal Technologies Program web site.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).