Source: Energy.gov, October 9, 2018
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the selection of seven projects totaling nearly $11.4 million to advance geothermal energy development. The projects will focus on accelerating the research and development (R&D) of innovative geothermal energy technologies in America.
“Geothermal energy is a clean and efficient base-load energy resource, making it an important part of our nation’s diverse energy portfolio,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry said. “Developing new, efficient drilling technologies will reduce these costs and increase the availability of this domestic renewable energy resource.”
Currently, American geothermal electricity production is located solely in the western states, where conventional geothermal resources put about 3.8 gigawatts (GW) of electricity on the grid. It has the potential to expand through hydrothermal and enhanced geothermal systems, which could tap into an estimated 100 GW of currently inaccessible resources and remove the geographic barriers of conventional geothermal resources.