The Drill Down – Special Edition: Five GTO Highlights of 2022
Estimated read time: 4 minutes
 Director’s Note: Happy 2023!
What’s the best way to get excited about the year ahead? To recognize and celebrate all that we accomplished thus far. With the incredible number of funding opportunity announcements, selection notifications, prizes, awardees, project close outs, our peer review, and countless engagements with our community, the best is yet to come.
It's truly amazing that in 2023, hundreds of thousands of people engaged with our content to access the latest data, updates, and news about all things geothermal. As you scroll through five of our highlights from 2022 below, you’ll notice an abundance of new resources and information. Check out our revamped website to explore these and much more!
And what can you expect from us in 2023? I’m excited to speak with stakeholders at our Quarterly Webinar on January 26 at 2 p.m. ET, where GTO staff will provide updates on projects, funding opportunities, events, and more. Register now and submit your questions in advance to DOE.geothermal@ee.doe.gov.
I hope you enjoy reading this special 2022 Highlights Edition of The Drill Down.
As always, I’m sending you and yours the best of wishes for the year ahead. Let’s continue to heat it up for geothermal!
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Lauren Boyd
GTO Acting Office Director
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Top Five Highlights of 2022
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Dig into GTO’s Future
GTO’s Five-Year RD&D Plan to Make Geothermal Energy a Part of Domestic Clean Energy Goals
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Early in 2022, GTO released its Multi-Year Program Plan highlighting GTO’s mission and a long-term plan to accelerate the advancement of geothermal technology. Our five-year roadmap, which builds on the findings of the 2019 GeoVision analysis, serves as an operational guide and resource to communicate GTO’s priorities and upcoming research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) opportunities to stakeholders and the public.
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Little Mineral, Big Assignment
The Potential of Geothermal in Developing Domestic Sources of Lithium Explored in DOE’s First StoryMap
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Last summer, GTO launched DOE’s first StoryMap, with a timely dive into domestic lithium production. Users can scroll through the immersive Lithium StoryMap to learn about the role of lithium in renewable energy, how the critical material is currently obtained, and why the Salton Sea region of California may prove to be a key domestic lithium source—with a little help from geothermal energy. As lithium demand continues to grow, geothermal energy may soon play a greater role in our lives and in the green economy.
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FORGE-ing Ahead
Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) Doing Big Things
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In April, the Utah FORGE team successfully completed a three-stage hydraulic stimulation of its first highly deviated injection well, along with a new video highlighting this key milestone in creating a fully human-made geothermal reservoir. FORGE also released its second competitive solicitation, with the potential to award up to $44 million to improve EGS reservoir characterization, creation, and sustainability. Congrats to FORGE on an amazing 2022!
Bonus: Watch Dr. Joe Moore from FORGE discuss enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) research on a recent Western Governors’ Association’s Heat Beneath Our Feet webinar.
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One Hot (Earth) Shot
Enhanced Geothermal Shot Galvanizes EGS Interest and Aims to Accelerate EGS RD&D
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DOE launched the Enhanced Geothermal Shot in September 2022. The shot seeks to make EGS a widespread domestic renewable energy option by cutting costs 90%, to $45 per megawatt hour, by 2035. With research and innovation to advance EGS, this renewable resource could power more than 40 million U.S. homes. DOE plans to hold an Enhanced Geothermal Shot Summit to engage state and local communities, industry, and other stakeholders later this year. Stay tuned for more details!
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(Heat) Pump it Up!
So Hot Right Now (And So Cooooooool)
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Interest in geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) has ramped up this past year, and we’re here for it. GHPs take advantage of constant underground temperatures to efficiently exchange heat, warming homes in the winter and cooling them in the summer. Geothermal heat pumps exist in all U.S states and territories, and the GeoVision analysis found that we can increase the use of GHPs across the country to bring heating and cooling to at least 28 million U.S. homes by 2050. In 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides tax credits to reduce the cost of installing GHPs. Read more about GHPs in the Washington Post, featuring GTO’s own Arlene Anderson.
Looking Ahead
Geothermal Operational Optimization with Machine Learning (GOOML) Webinar | January 23, 4:00 p.m. ET
Learn more about GOOML, a three-year GTO-funded international collaboration, which aims to further the uptake of machine learning in geothermal operations. Register now.
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