DOE to give $18 million for geothermal projects

The Department of Energy said Wednesday that it would give up to $18 million to 32 projects that aim to reduce the costs related to geothermal energy.

The projects center around analysis and mapping of geothermal resources and improving extraction of minerals in geothermal systems.

{mosads}“Investments in leading-edge geothermal technologies are diversifying our nation’s energy portfolio today and could help power our low-carbon future tomorrow,” Doug Hollett, who leads the department’s geothermal technology office, said in a statement.

“The projects announced today aim to spur the development of cost-competitive geothermal energy and help provide U.S. manufacturers with the critical materials they need to build clean energy technologies right here in the United States,” Hollett said.

The Energy Department split the funding into three kinds of projects: $10 million for research and development into methods to better measure and trace geothermal systems, $4 million to test using an oil and gas mapping technique to find geothermal resources and $4 million to explore recovering valuable minerals found in geothermal brine.