Happy Earth Day From GTO

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Energy dot gov Office of Energy Efficiency and renewable energy

Geothermal Technologies Office

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April 20, 2022

drill down

Happy Earth Day From GTO

Estimated read time: 8 minutes 

Director’s Note: Happy Earth Day to our GORGE-ous planet! This Friday, we celebrate Earth Day, an annual event to honor and support the environmental protection movement. It is the perfect time to reflect on our mission at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) to invest in research and development of innovative geothermal technologies, develop the clean energy workforce of the future, and help ensure the world has access to sustainable and earth-friendly energy resources.

Earth day

As I’m sure you’ve heard, GTO will be hosting a Virtual Peer Review to examine the progress and contributions of projects in GTO’s portfolio. We want to invite YOU to attend and learn about GTO’s projects and what the future may hold for investments in geothermal programs. Registration is open!

This month is filled with a ton of announcements. Join us at an Earth Day event featuring Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm for a special prize announcement, and make sure you are signed up for GTO email notifications to receive regular updates.

                                                                                            —GTO Director Susan Hamm 

Riddle me this: What does geothermal say to the Earth?

Share The Drill Down with your friends and colleagues. If this newsletter was forwarded to you, please subscribe. Reach out to us at DOE.Geothermal@ee.doe.gov; we welcome your feedback or suggestions.  

Announcements

Secretary Granholm Visits the Salton Sea

HAPPENING NOW: Follow along with Secretary Granholm as she visits several geothermal and lithium extraction sites at the Salton Sea! Yesterday, she met with members from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and discussed LBNL’s Salton Sea lithium resource characterization projects.

Request for Information: Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – 2022 Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) Pilot Demonstrations

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GTO is soliciting feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, tribes, and other stakeholders on issues related to EGS demonstrations ahead of $84 million in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Areas of interest include feedback on the planned structure of GTO’s EGS Pilot Demonstrations funding opportunity and ideas on how DOE can engage and promote increased diversity on demonstration teams. View the announcement for more information. Responses are due May 13.

DOE Announces Clean Energy Innovator Fellowship Program To Help Build a Diverse U.S. Workforce to Decarbonize the Electricity Sector

The Clean Energy Fellowship is a new $6 million program that sends recent graduates and energy professionals to work at critical energy organizations to advance clean energy solutions. This program will help increase access to clean energy career opportunities across the country and accelerate the national transition to a resilient and affordable clean energy economy. Applications for fellows and hosts are due by May 6. Learn more.

DOE Will Assist 22 Communities With Locally Tailored Pathways To Clean Energy

LEAP

DOE announced the inaugural communities selected as part of the Communities Local Energy Action Program (Communities LEAP), a first-of-its-kind initiative designed to help energy-overburdened communities take direct control of their clean energy future. The 22 communities will receive support from DOE to create community-wide action plans that reduce local air pollution, increase energy resilience, lower utility costs and energy burdens, and provide long-term jobs and economic opportunities.

DOE Awards $9 Million to Tribal Communities to Enhance Energy Security and Resilience

Last month, DOE announced $9 million in funding to 13 American Indian and Alaska Native communities for 14 projects that will harness their vast undeveloped solar, hydro, and geothermal energy resources; reduce or stabilize energy costs; and increase energy security and resilience on tribal lands.

Kawerak, Inc. in Nome, Alaska, will install an Organic Rankine Cycle system using local geothermal resources at Pilgrim Hot Springs to electrify and heat 18 existing tribal buildings, a water well, a water pump house, and two bathing pools, allowing economic development of this historic site.


Prizes and Competitions

Announcing the EnergyTech University Prize (UP) Winners

Please join GTO in congratulating the Mesophase team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for being a technology bonus prize winner of the EnergyTech UP competition. The team is commercializing an innovative condenser tube surface that can enhance heat transfer more than seven times, adding up to 7% power output in a geothermal plant.

The competition challenged students to identify an energy technology, assess its market potential, and propose a strategy for commercialization. If you are interested in learning more about these types of competitions, visit the American-Made Challenges website.


FORGE Spotlight

Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) Sets Sights High for the Future of Geothermal Energy

The University of Utah FORGE team is making headlines in the renewable energy space. The team is working toward a set of ambitious goals, including a multizone stimulation currently underway to take place later this month and working with their partners toward a repeatable strategy for EGS stimulation. Visit the Utah FORGE website for more updates on the project and take a virtual 360 tour of the site!


Publications and Products

Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle: The Geothermal Possibilities of Oil and Gas Wells

WOO

When it comes to powering U.S. homes, oil and gas and geothermal energy are similar: Both use comparable technologies and processes to locate and drill resources that generate electricity. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that one opportunity for unlocking new untapped potential of geothermal electricity—one of the cleanest and most dependable forms of renewable energy—may lie inside millions of American oil and gas wells. Read more.

Unearthing Potential: The Value of Geothermal Energy to U.S. Decarbonization

Achieving U.S. climate goals requires the development and widespread deployment of all available clean energy solutions. Watch a virtual panel, hosted by the Atlantic Council and featuring GTO Director Hamm, discuss opportunities for geothermal energy in U.S. emission reductions and pathways for wider deployment, greater integration, and stronger policy support. Read the Atlantic Council’s report on the potential geothermal has to offer and recommendations to optimize U.S. geothermal policy to set the sector up for a central role in the fight against climate change.


Upcoming Events

American-Made Earth Day Celebration

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is hosting its first ever Earth Day celebration! Please register to hear remarks from Secretary Granholm and GTO Director Hamm. Be the first to know about prize winners, key milestones, and the announcement of new prizes. The event is happening Friday, April 22 at 12 p.m. ET. Hope to see you there!

Workforce Technical Assistance Workshops

Join DOE and George Mason University for technical assistance training workshops to learn how to expand your small or minority business and work with DOE. The workshops explore various topics related to proposal writing, financing and more. Learn more and register for the free workshops. 

April

2022 Peer Review Approaching Soon!

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GTO’s 2022 Peer Review is just a few weeks away! If you haven’t already registered to attend virtual sessions on May 10, 12, 16, 18, 24, and 26, now is your time! Tune in to hear about GTO’s portfolio and projects.


In Case You Missed It

Geothermal Heat Pumps Are Among the Most Earth-friendly Home Energy Sources, Experts Say

GTO Technology Manager Arlene Anderson sat down with the Washington Post to talk about geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) being among the most efficient and comfortable heating and cooling technologies available today. GHPs use the ground instead of outside air to warm and cool homes, and experts say it is the most efficient alternative to furnaces and air conditioners for all climates. Read more.

PBS NewsHour Climate Solutions: Is Geothermal Energy a Viable Alternative to Fossil Fuels?

PBS NewsHour recently aired a segment on geothermal featuring NREL’s Amanda Kolker, National Oilwell Varco’s Tony Pink, Jim Turner from Controlled Thermal Resources, Cindy Taff from Sage Geosystems, and Particle Drilling’s John Schiller who talked about geothermal emerging as an attractive renewable energy source thanks to several promising technologies. The segment also highlighted geothermal brines from the Salton Sea as a future source of lithium and other minerals. Major players such as NREL, Utah FORGE, and GTO continue to explore new ways to tap into the limitless potential of geothermal energy.

DOE Invests $14 Million to Scale Up Direct Air Capture and Storage Technology, Coupled to Low-Carbon Energy Resources

DOE announced $14 million in funding for five front-end engineering design studies that will leverage existing zero- or low-carbon energy sourced from geothermal or nuclear power plants or low-grade heat from industrial facilities to supply direct air capture (DAC) projects, combined with dedicated and reliable carbon storage. The selected studies will advance the evaluation of DAC technology coupled to durable storage—both of which could play a critical role in conjunction with aggressive decarbonization in combatting the climate crisis and achieving the Biden-Harris Administration’s goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Learn more.

U.S. State Department Press Briefing With Secretary Granholm

On March 22, Secretary Granholm participated in a press briefing before the 2022 ministerial meeting of the International Energy Agency. Prior to taking questions, Secretary Granholm spoke about the urgent need to accelerate the transition to clean energy, emphasizing geothermal, to combat climate change and as a means to improve the world’s energy security. Read her remarks mentioning geothermal.

Sonoma Clean Power’s (SCP) GeoZone Initiative

SCP released a solicitation for geothermal technology and deployment companies to partner in growing local geothermal development in California. Visit the SCP website to learn more.


Geothermal Energy Around the Web

Clean Energy Is Buried at the Bottom of Abandoned Oil Wells. GTO Program Manager Lauren Boyd sat down and talked about the opportunities abandoned oil and gas wells provide to the geothermal industry. The abandoned wells could be retrofitted into geothermal wells, holding the key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and creating clean energy jobs.

Geothermal Expansion Eyed by Biden Officials for Climate Goals. DOE announced $84 million to support four enhanced geothermal systems pilot demonstration projects as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. To meet the administration’s goals, achieving 60 gigawatts of geothermal capacity by 2050, deployment will spread from Western states to Eastern states.

Energy Dept. Pushes Heat Pumps To Reduce Greenhouse Emissions. The use of heat pumps, an affordable yet clean energy source, in households across the United States is increasingly becoming an attractive option to address climate change and reduce energy consumption.

How a Few Geothermal Plants Could Solve America's Lithium Supply Crunch and Boost the EV Battery Industry. Extracting lithium from geothermal brines could boost the United States lithium supply to 10 times the current demand. The critical mineral is in high demand because of its role in high-charge-density batteries used in electric vehicles and energy storage.

A Net-zero Future for Gas Utilities? Switching to Underground Thermal Networks. Three pilot projects are underway in Massachusetts to test replacing gas pipeline networks with thermal energy pipes, also known as ‘geo-grids,’ to work toward a carbon-free future.

UC Berkeley Drills 400-Foot Borehole To Explore Geothermal Heating on Campus. Engineers at UC Berkeley started to drill deeper than ever before to understand the conditions at 400 feet below ground for future geothermal projects to create a carbon-free campus.


Answer: You rock my world! 

Did we miss your event or an interesting media piece? Please reach out to us at DOE.Geothermal@ee.doe.gov!