The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) has selected eight projects that could receive up to a combined $30 million to accelerate development of geothermal technologies. The funding announced November 12 is through the Stimulate Utilization of Plentiful Energy in Rocks through High-temperature Original Technologies (SUPERHOT) program. The projects will develop innovative approaches to harness superhot geothermal resources at temperatures above 375C and pressures above 22 megapascals to expand access to reliable baseload power.
“SUPERHOT pursues exponential, not incremental, progress by pushing the boundaries of innovation to fundamentally change how we tap into geothermal energy,” said ARPA-E Director Conner Prochaska. “The Energy Department is investing in technologies that could unlock America’s vast untapped energy potential and increase geothermal well productivity to deliver affordable, reliable, and secure power to American families and businesses.”
The U.S. holds at least 15,000 GW of potential geothermal power beneath its surface, yet existing technologies currently generate less than 4 GW of utility-scale power. Building on ARPA-E’s work to advance Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) and Advanced Geothermal Systems (AGS), SUPERHOT aims to more than triple the output of individual geothermal wells by overcoming challenges in well construction and heat transfer. These advancements could help meet growing U.S. energy demand by delivering 10–20 GW of baseload power at less than $30 per megawatt-hour by 2040.
Selected projects include those led by the University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, TN); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, CA); XGS Energy (Houston, TX); Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Richland, WA); the University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA); Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos, NM); and Blade Energy Partners, Ltd. (Houston, TX).
Learn more about the selected projects here and the SUPERHOT program here.
—This content was contributed by ARPA-E.
