Both Utah and several of its companies were among 21 projects to receive $99 million in federal geothermal energy development grants.

The U.S. Department of Energy selected five projects to test field-scale enhanced geothermal systems for potential deployment along with 16 exploratory drilling projects to provide data for future commercial developments and investments.

“These projects will empower American innovators to unlock the tremendous geothermal resources beneath our feet,” Kyle Haustveit, DOE under secretary, said Sept. 21 in an announcement . He noted that DOE is promoting advanced geothermal technologies “that can lower costs, strengthen American energy dominance, and turn more of our vast domestic geothermal resources into reliable and affordable power.”

The Utah companies to receive grants were Zanskar Geothermal and Minerals as well as AlterG Resources.

The University of Utah in Salt Lake City was awarded two grants:

  • To design, drill, stimulate, operate and validate a high‑performance enhanced geothermal system (EGS) project in the Dixie Valley West geothermal field in Nevada; and
  • To drill and perform subsurface characterization in Utah’s Cove Fort geothermal field.

Other geothermal projects slated for Utah were granted to Raser Power Systems LLC, based in Reno, Nev. The company is expected to determine the ability of the Thermo No. 1 geothermal power plant in Utah’s Escalante Desert to generate more power by drilling an exploratory well. The project also calls for monitoring both an existing and exploratory well.

In Beaver County, Utah, Denver-based 400C Energy Inc. plans to deepen an existing geothermal well to determine if the Salt Cove area links to a hydrothermal system.

DOE stated that information from the projects will be made public to enable private industry and other stakeholders to encourage the development of geothermal technology and exploration.

The U.S. is seeking to promoted the use of EGS energy, which uses “human-made reservoirs to create the proper conditions for electricity generation by injecting fluid into the hot rocks. This creates new fractures and opens existing ones to enhance the size and connectivity of fluid pathways. Once this engineered reservoir is created, fluid can be injected into the subsurface and then drawn up through a production well to generate electricity using the same processes as a conventional hydrothermal system.”

According to the DOE, the U.S. has a generating capacity of four gigawatts in geothermal electricity. It notes that “hot rocks, fluid, and permeability underground creates natural geothermal systems. Small underground pathways, such as fractures, conduct fluids through the hot rocks. In geothermal electricity generation, this fluid can be drawn as energy in the form of heat through wells to the earth’s surface. Once it has reached the surface, this fluid is used to drive turbines that produce electricity.”