This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is being issued by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO). The mission of GTO is to research, develop, and validate innovative and cost-competitive technologies and tools to locate, access, and develop geothermal resources in the United States, enabling the deployment of carbon-free, flexible geothermal energy in both the electric and non-electric sectors. Geothermal energy is a renewable and diverse energy solution for the United States, providing reliable and flexible electricity generation and delivering unique technology solutions to America’s heating and cooling demands. Geothermal resources can be found nationwide, are “always on,” and represent vast domestic energy potential. Only a fraction of this potential has been realized due to technical and non-technical barriers that constrain industry growth. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office’s GeoVision report concluded that with technology improvements, especially in areas relevant to drilling costs reduction, geothermal power generation could increase 26-fold from today, representing 60 gigawatts-electric (GWe) by 2050.
Building a clean and equitable energy economy and addressing the climate crisis is a top priority of the Biden Administration. This FOA will advance the Biden Administration’s goals (1) to achieve carbon pollution-free electricity by 2035 and (2) to “deliver an equitable, clean energy future, and put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050“1 to the benefit of all Americans. The Department of Energy is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering, catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment (RDD&D), and ensuring environmental justice and inclusion of underserved communities.
This FOA targets technology developments that will provide significant improvements in drilling performance in commercial geothermal settings. The GeoVision Roadmap2 outlines a compilation of technical, economic, and institutional actions that the entire geothermal community, including DOE, industry, and academia must address in order for geothermal technologies to play a larger role in the nation’s energy mix. A key “Action Area” identified in the GeoVision Roadmap and strategic goals for the Hydrothermal Resource Program are highlighted below.
GeoVision Key Action 1.3 - Improve geothermal drilling and wellbore integrity: Integrating improved drilling and well-completion technology, better well design and construction materials, improved decision making, and innovative drilling financing can help industry realize better drilling efficiencies and effectiveness.
DELIVERABLE(S): New designs and approaches that enhance drilling efficiency and reduce well costs.
IMPACT(S): Reduced costs and risks and improved reliability.
GTO Hydrothermal Resource Program Strategic Goals:
Expand geothermal energy opportunities throughout United States.
Support research on drilling technologies that increase efficiency, lower costs, and lower risk related to hydrothermal reservoir development.
Accelerate oil & gas technology transfer to address geothermal’s toughest challenges.
The construction of geothermal wells can represent up to 50% of total capital costs for geothermal energy production. Technologies and techniques that can reduce the time needed or the material costs associated with the construction of geothermal wells are key to achieving cost reductions. Furthermore, recent advancements in drill bits, casing, and drilling workflows have achieved significant cost reductions and improvements in wellbore quality in geothermal subsurface settings. Such significant reductions in time and capital requirements, when achieved in a reproducible manner, would represent material progress towards achieving the goals of the GeoVision study.
GTO seeks to reduce the financial risk of technologies and techniques not widely deployed in geothermal resource development. Of particular interest are projects focused on advancing geothermal well construction through the development, modification, and/or adaption of technologies and/or techniques that reduce drilling costs in a real-world geothermal field setting.
FOA Goal:
The ultimate goal of this FOA is a reduction in geothermal well costs. Because drilling costs are highly variable and sensitive to one-off events, average daily drilling penetration rate (e.g. average m/day) is the basis of performance measurement selected in this FOA. This FOA seeks to affect a 25% improvement in geothermal drilling rates by supporting multiple demonstration projects that each target this level of improvement. This metric and performance target will allow for quantitative evaluation of project impacts to support broad deployment of the most successful approaches.