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Open Solicitations

Here you'll find the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) current solicitations for funding geothermal technology projects. See Solicitation Archives for information about closed solicitations and Solicitation Awards for information about current projects that DOE is funding.

Pre-Solicitation Announcements

The Geothermal Technologies Program held a meeting on April 25, 2008, in Houston, Texas, to invite input and comments from industry and the public on the current development of two Funding Opportunity Announcements and one Request for Information:

The following documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.

The presentations that were made at that meeting are now available to view:

  • Geothermal Pre-solicitation Meeting Introduction (PDF 58 KB)
  • Geothermal Pre-solicitation Meeting Overview by Steve Chalk, DAS for Renewable Energy (PDF 69 KB)
  • Geothermal Program Overview (PDF 2.3 MB)
  • Enhanced Geothermal Systems Research and Development (PDF 351 KB)
  • Geothermal Risk Mitigation Strategies (PDF 211 KB)
  • EGS Technologies Validation Site (PDF 60 KB)

Enhanced Geothermal Systems Research, Development, and Reservoir Stimulation
DRAFT Funding Opportunity Announcement FY08

The Geothermal Technologies Program is seeking pre-solicitation input from industry to assist in the development of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for Enhanced Geothermal Systems. The FOA consists of the following two Topic Areas:

  • Topic Area 1: Enhanced Geothermal Systems Technologies — This topic area seeks projects that address key aspects of engineered reservoir creation, management, and utilization, by developing tools and techniques useful to temperatures up to 300°C and depths as great as 10,000 meters. Areas of interest include: zonal isolation; down-hole pumps; fracture characterization; image fluid flow; tracers and tracer interpretation; high-temperature logging tools and sensors; and stimulation prediction models. These technology improvements are discussed in greater detail in the report, "An Evaluation of Enhanced Geothermal Systems Technology" (PDF 7.1 MB).

  • Topic Area 2: Enhanced Geothermal Systems Reservoir Stimulation — This topic area seeks projects that demonstrate stimulation techniques that successfully establish inter-well connectivity at viable flow and heat extraction rates for commercial EGS production using techniques such as hydraulic stimulation.

Comments in response to these Topic Areas can be provided to the DOE Golden Field Office as an attachment to an e-mail message to go.geothermal@go.doe.gov. Please provide comments by April 28th.

Institutional Challenges
DRAFT Funding Opportunity Announcement FY08

The Geothermal Technologies Program is seeking pre-solicitation input from industry to assist in the development of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for meeting institutional challenges presented by the programs focus on Enhanced Geothermal Systems. The FOA consists of the following three Topic Areas:

  • Topic Area 1: Geothermal National Data Center — GTP is seeking to award one grant on a competitive basis to develop a data center that has reliable and accurate data on geothermal resources. The data center will support a wide range of development and utilization of geothermal resources. The Applicant will be responsible for collecting, maintaining, and disseminating information in the public domain. The Applicant will also be responsible for incorporating best practices from the information technology industry. The Applicant should also include a proposal for a classification system that will provide industry and investors a clearly defined framework to evaluate geothermal prospects and establish a common industry language for geothermal development.

  • Topic Area 2: Industry Communications — GTP is seeking opportunities to coordinate efforts and share information with domestic and international partners engaged in research and development of geothermal systems and related technology.

  • Topic Area 3: Geothermal Curriculum Development and International Student Exchange — U.S. industry needs new geothermal professionals to meet the demands of the growing geothermal development market. GTP is seeking to award grant funding, on a competitive basis, to develop geothermal educational curriculum for an institute of higher education. The institute will serve as an educational resource to students in relevant fields of study, and the data generated by the facility shall be available to students and the general public. The curriculum development would include sponsoring a student exchange with participating foreign universities. Students who utilized this curriculum would gain first hand knowledge through classroom education in the U.S. and a foreign country, field work, a National Lab or industry internship in geothermal research and development, policy, regulatory, and/or environmental issues.

Comments in response to these Topic Areas can be provided to the DOE Golden Field Office as an attachment to an e-mail message to go.geothermal@go.doe.gov. Please provide comments by April 28th.

Enhanced Geothermal Systems Technologies Validation Site(s)
Request for Information DE-PS36-08GO38003:

The Department of Energy is seeking information from the geothermal community to assist in the development of a possible Funding Opportunity Announcement, acquisition, or other procurement option in regard to establishing Enhanced Geothermal Systems Technologies Validation Site(s). This will facilitate high risk technology development, validation, and deployment by participating organizations that would not otherwise take place at a commercial geothermal field.

The information gathered from this RFI will be used by DOE for internal planning and decision making purposes, and will not be released to the general public. The RFI is listed for comment by its record number, DE-PS36-08GO38003, at the DOE Financial Opportunities by Program site. Comments in response to this RFI must be provided to the DOE Golden Field Office as an attachment to an e-mail message to RFI-08GO38003@go.doe.gov. Comments must be provided no later than 8 p.m. EDT, on May 30, 2008.