As readers of this space will have noted, geothermal energy is one of the few renewable sources treated positively by early Trump Administration efforts to attain "energy dominance." Given the favorable treatment of geothermal energy under President Trump's initial Executive Orders, it will be interesting to see what happens to this move last week from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E).
On January 16, 2025, ARPA-E announced a $30 million funding opportunity for research and development of technologies to increase the production of superhot rock geothermal energy, generally defined as energy extracted via heat from super-hot subsurface reservoirs (temperatures greater than 375°C and pressures greater than 22 megapascals (MPa)). Superhot rock geothermal energy is a largely untapped resource globally, but its potential is vast—according to the Clean Air Task Force, just 1% of the world's superhot rock geothermal capacity could generate 63 TW of clean firm power. While conventional geothermal systems are geographically limited to regions where heat is concentrated near the Earth's surface, high-temperature subsurface rocks exist at various depths across the globe. The Clean Air Task Force's preliminary model finds superhot rock energy potential across 13% of North America's land area, concentrated mainly in the western U.S. and regions of Mexico. Utilization of even 1% of North America's superhot rock resource has the potential to provide as much as 7.5 TW of energy capacity.
ARPA-E's aptly titled "Stimulate Utilization of Plentiful
Energy in Rocks through High-temperature Original
Technologies" (SUPERHOT) program will explore modification of
conventional geothermal well designs to satisfy requirements to
survive superhot conditions. The program focuses on robust
geothermal well construction that can last 15 years and enable heat
transfer from the surrounding geologic formation to the well.
The ARPA-E eXCHANGE website provides additional
information about the opportunity, including application forms and
templates. Concept papers for the project must be submitted by
February 19, 2025, and the anticipated timeframe for an award is
November 2025.
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