The selected projects target research and development in three technology areas:  advancing subsurface analysis and engineering techniques for enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), applying a mapping approach called “play fairway analysis” to discover new geothermal resources, and accelerating extraction technologies to unlock domestic supplies of high-value materials like lithium from low- to moderate-temperature geothermal resources. Together, these projects are designed to lower the cost and risk of geothermal development, thereby accelerating technological advancement and economical deployment of geothermal energy.

The funding will be allocated as follows:

Integrated EGS R&D ($10 million): Twelve collaborative enhanced geothermal systems (EGS)¹ research and development projects will use novel techniques such as isotope studies, innovative rock mechanics experiments, and tracer studies integrated with geophysical methods, to increase the precision and accuracy of measuring critical underground reservoir properties over time. Project teams will focus on laboratory feasibility studies in order to characterize critical EGS reservoir parameters — such as fracture length, fracture aperture, fluid flow pathways, and in-situ stress — in order to precisely engineer geothermal reservoirs. These awards will later yield integrated characterization methods and prototypes ready to be validated in the field.

Play Fairway Analysis ($4 million): Eleven projects will apply the “play fairway analysis” technique² to identify prospective geothermal resources in areas with no obvious surface expression by detecting and plotting underground heat, permeability, and fluid to discover where all three are most likely to be present together. Selected projects will study diverse territories across the United States – from as far west as Alaska’s Aleutian Islands chain and Hawaii, to the Cascade Range of Oregon, the Great Basin in Utah, the Rio Grande rift zone, and eastward to the Appalachian Basin in the mid-Atlantic region, where lower temperature geothermal resources could be tapped in the future.

Low-Temperature Geothermal Mineral Recovery Program ($4 million): Nine projects will focus on feasibility studies aimed at better understanding extraction technologies and process economics, assessing the current critical materials resource base, and researching and developing innovative extraction methods.³

“Investments in leading-edge geothermal technologies are diversifying our nation’s energy portfolio today and could help power our low-carbon future tomorrow,” said Doug Hollett, director of the US Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office. “[These projects] aim to spur the development of cost-competitive geothermal energy and help provide US manufacturers with the critical materials they need to build clean energy technologies right here in the United States.”

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1. EGS are engineered reservoirs, created beneath the surface of the Earth, where there is hot rock but limited pathways through which fluid can flow. During EGS development, underground fluid pathways are safely created and their size and connectivity increased. These enhanced pathways allow fluid to circulate throughout the hot rock and carry heat to the surface to generate electricity. 
2. Play fairway analysis, a subsurface mapping technique already used for oil and gas exploration, helps to pinpoint where geothermal energy resources remain hidden beneath the Earth’s surface. By improving success rates for exploration drilling, play fairway analysis could significantly lower the costs of geothermal energy while opening up new areas to development.
3. This targeted initiative focuses on combining power generation with mineral extraction as a path to developing commercially viable, low- to moderate-temperature geothermal resources, while boosting production of materials needed by manufacturers of clean energy technologies and other industries. More information on this procedure is available online.