The U.S. Department of Energy announced Monday it is providing $99 million in funding for 21 geothermal energy development projects across the country. Crucially for Northern Utah residents and businesses, five of these projects are linked to the state, supporting the ongoing push to expand renewable energy sources in the region and beyond.
Salt Lake City-based Zanskar Geothermal and Minerals, AlterG Resources, and the University of Utah are among the institutions and companies whose projects were selected for this federal investment.
The Department of Energy selected five projects specifically to conduct tests of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). These tests aim to validate technologies under real-world conditions, as stated in the agency's news release. While these projects involve Utah-based entities like Zanskar Geothermal and Minerals, AlterG Resources, and the University of Utah, their testing sites are located out-of-state. These include locations in Hidalgo County, New Mexico; Pershing and Churchill Counties, Nevada; and the Dixie Valley West geothermal field, also in Nevada.
The remaining 16 funded projects focus on exploration drilling. This type of drilling seeks to identify new geothermal and conventional hydrothermal geothermal generation sites. Both the University of Utah and Zanskar Geothermal and Minerals are also participating in these exploration efforts. A key project for Utah involves the University of Utah, which is expected to study a large thermal anomaly in Utah’s Cove Fort geothermal field through its exploration drilling. Additionally, out-of-state companies are contributing to Utah's geothermal development; Nevada’s Raser Power System, for instance, will explore increased generation at an existing geothermal power plant situated in Utah’s Escalante Desert.
These federal investments are designed to "unlock the tremendous geothermal resources beneath our feet," Department of Energy Undersecretary Kyle Haustveit said in the release. Geothermal technology provides a method for producing renewable energy by converting heat from beneath the Earth's surface directly into electricity. This development has garnered bipartisan attention amidst a national effort to diversify and multiply energy sources.
The broader collaborative effort includes four Mountain West states—Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico—which have recently joined forces to establish a Mountain West Geothermal Consortium. This consortium aims to accelerate the development of geothermal technology across the region. A significant aspect of all funded projects is the commitment to data transparency. The Department of Energy’s Geothermal Data Repository is slated to make all generated project data publicly available. This initiative is intended to inform future technology development and geothermal exploration across the industry, according to the agency's release, fostering wider innovation and understanding of geothermal potential.
