The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) partners with industry, academia, and research facilities to further the development of geothermal energy technologies through funding and support of geothermal projects. Competitive solicitations issued as Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOAs) are the principal mechanism used to contract for cost-shared research, development, demonstration, and deployment projects. Other types of funding announcements include Notices of Technical Assistance, Notices of Intent, Prizes and Competitions, and Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs.
Current geothermal-related funding opportunities are listed below. Although GTO maintains current information on these solicitations, the official source for funding information is the EERE Funding Opportunity Exchange, also called the EERE Exchange.
All potential applicants and reviewers need to have a login.gov account to access EERE Exchange and apply to open opportunities. For more information, please read the Multi-Factor Authentication Quick Guide.
To receive notice of new GTO funding opportunities, sign up for GTO office updates and subscribe to our monthly newsletter, The Drill Down, which also includes information on other DOE funding opportunities.
SBIR and STTR Programs
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs help small businesses conduct research and development (R&D) by providing competitively selected grants for projects that have the potential for commercialization and meet specific DOE mission-specific R&D needs. Specific research topics are selected through the DOE SBIR/STTR Programs Office working collaboratively with DOE's program offices.
DOE SBIR/STTR offers more than 60 technical topics and 250 subtopics, spanning multiple research areas. To learn more, visit the Office of Science's SBIR Funding Opportunities page and open the Topic Areas or FOA documents listed on the tables’ “Document” rows.
Open Opportunities
Critical Materials Laboratory Call
The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) issued a Lab Call for DOE national laboratories to pursue critical materials research and development. The Lab Call is open to all DOE/National Nuclear Security Agency Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) and all national laboratories. Applications are due May 20, 2024. All communications, including applications, must be submitted to GeoCriticalMinerals@ee.doe.gov.
Closed Opportunities
Name | Open Date | Close Date | Funding Number |
SBIR/STTR Phase 2 Release 2 | Feb. 26, 2024 | Apr. 30, 2024 | DE-FOA-0003279 |
Combined Wellbore Construction High Temperature Tools and Reservoir Thermal Energy Storage (RTES) | Jan. 30, 2024 | Apr. 1, 2024 | DE-FOA-0003296 |
SBIR/STTR Phase 1 Release 2 | Jan. 18, 2024 | Mar. 12, 2024 | DE-FOA-0003202 |
Geothermal Collegiate Competition 2023 | Aug. 1, 2023 | Oct. 4, 2023 | N/A |
EnergyTech University Prize 2024 | Jul. 2, 2023 | Feb. 2, 2024 | N/A |
Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) Pilot Demonstrations (Round 1) | Feb. 8, 2023 | Jun. 16, 2023 | DE-FOA-0002826 |
FY22 AMMTO-GTO Joint FOA: Lithium Extraction and Conversion from Geothermal Brines | Nov. 9, 2022 | Jan. 31, 2023 | DE‐FOA‐0002823 |
FORGE Solicitation for EGS | Aug. 15, 2022 | Jan. 10, 2023 | N/A |
Geothermal energy from Oil and Gas Demonstrated Engineering (GEODE) | Jul. 28, 2022 | Oct. 28, 2022 | DE-FOA-0002776 |
EnergyTech University Prize 2023 | May 10, 2022 | Jan. 26, 2023 | N/A |
Community Geothermal Heating and Cooling Design and Deployment Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) | May 3, 2022 | Oct. 11, 2022 | DE-FOA-0002632 |
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL)-2022 Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) Pilot Demonstrations Request for Information | Apr. 19, 2022 | May 13, 2022 | DE-FOA-0002749 |
Geothermal Geophone Prize | Apr. 18, 2022 | Feb. 1, 2024 | N/A |
Geothermal Drilling Technology Demonstration Campaign Funding Opportunity Announcement | Feb. 4, 2022 | Jun. 3, 2022 | DE-FOA-0002656 |
FY 2022 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Funding Opportunities | Dec. 13, 2021 | Feb. 22, 2022 | DE-FOA-0002555 |
Direct Air Capture Combined with Dedicated Long-Term Carbon Storage, Coupled to Existing Low-Carbon Energy | Oct. 26, 2021 | Dec. 22, 2021 | DE-FOA-0002560 |
Geothermal Collegiate Competition – Class of 2022 (Winners were announced in May 2022) | Jun. 16, 2021 | Nov. 18, 2021 | N/A |
Wells of Opportunity (WOO): Amplify II and Reamplify | Jun. 10, 2021 | Aug. 16, 2021 | DE-FOA-0002525 |
Innovative Methods to Control Hydraulic Properties of Enhanced Geothermal Systems | Apr. 30, 2021 | Jun. 15, 2021 | DE-FOA-0002498 |
Opportunities to Improve Geothermal Technology Cost and Performance Modeling | April 28, 2021 | May 28, 2021 | DE-FOA-0002524 |
Wells of Opportunity (WOO): Pilot and Amplify | Feb. 4, 2020 | Apr. 24, 2020 | DE-FOA-0002227 |
Hydrothermal and Low Temperature Geothermal Research | Feb. 4, 2020 | May 4, 2020 | DE-FOA-0002219 |
American-Made Challenge: Geothermal Manufacturing Prize | Jan. 29, 2020 | Aug. 29, 2022 | N/A |
Subsurface Stress and Loss Circulation in Geothermal Drilling | Mar. 28, 2019 | Jun. 7, 2019 | DE-FOA-0002083 |
Call for Proposals to Advance Geothermal Research and Development | Jan. 3, 2019 | Jan. 31, 2020 | N/A |
Machine Learning for Geothermal Energy | Jul. 19, 2018 | Nov. 13, 2018 | DE-FOA-0001956 |
Zonal Isolation for Manmade Geothermal Reservoirs | Jun. 25, 2018 | Jul. 25, 2018 | DE-FOA-0001945 |
Efficient Drilling for Geothermal Energy (EDGE) | Apr. 23, 2018 | Jul. 16, 2018 | DE-FOA-0001880 |
Deep Direct-Use Feasibility Studies | Nov. 15, 2016 | Feb. 22, 2017 | DE-FOA-0001601 |
Mineral Recovery Phase II: Geothermal Concepts and Approaches to Validate Extraction Technologies | Dec. 1, 2015 | Feb. 29, 2016 | DE-FOA-0001376 |
Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) | Jul. 17, 2014 | Nov. 12, 2014 | DE-FOA-0000890 |
Integrated Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) Research and Development | Feb. 21, 2014 | Apr. 30, 2014 | DE-FOA-0000842 |
Low Temperature Geothermal Mineral Recovery Program | Feb. 4, 2014 | May 2, 2014 | DE-FOA-0001016 |
Geothermal Play Fairway Analysis | Jan. 24, 2014 | Apr. 11, 2014 | DE-FOA-0000841 |
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