United States

Written By Kim Manunui

Contracting Party: United States Department of Energy (USDOE), United States

Executive Committee Member: Lauren Boyd, USDOE, United States

The United States leads the world in installed geothermal electricity capacity, with ~4 GW ̃representing~24% of the world wide geothermal capacity installed.
The majority of this is in the western USA, in California and Nevada.

The Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) of the USDOE funds geothermal research, development and deployment activity stimulating growth in the geothermal industry and encouraging adoption of geothermal technologies by the public and private sectors. There are four program areas:

  • Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS),

  • Hydrothermal resources,

  • Low temperature and coproduced resources, and

  • Data, modelling and analysis.

The 2019 GeoVISION geothermal roadmap out to 2050 identifies three significant findings that:

  • Geothermally powered district heating schemes could grow to ~18,000 (from 21 currently).

  • Geothermal heat pumps (GSHP) growing to 28 million installs.

  • Geothermal electricity growing to 60 GW (from ~3.7 GW) contributing 8% of US capacity.

In 2022 GTO announced the Enhanced Geothermal Shot™, a DOE-wide effort to reduce the cost of enhanced geothermal systems by 90%, to $45 per megawatt-hour, by 2035. Analysis identifies that achieving this goal could allow the United States to deploy more than 90 GWe of geothermal electricity-generating capacity by 2050.

2020 drilling activity at the Milford EGS Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy site in Utah saw the completion of the first of two injection / production wells. The well 16A was drilled to 3353m reaching a final inclination of 65 degrees.  The use of PDC bits and techniques developed by Texas A&M University resulted in drilling penetration rates averaging 12 m per hour. A video of the FORGE Utah work can be viewed here.

During 2021 the Wells of Opportunity funding announcement was released covering two topic areas; EGS field validation studies (Amplify), and geothermal production from hydrocarbon wells (Reamplify).

The EGS Collab work launched in 2017 continued through 2021.  The work is focused on controlled, small-scale, in-situ experiments improving the understanding of rock fracture behaviour and permeability enhancement. A wiki with the findings from the studies can be accessed here.

Work on hidden geothermal systems focussed in the Great Basin region of the western USA continued through 2021 including the  INnovative Geothermal Exploration through Novel Investigations Of Undiscovered Systems (INGENIOUS) and the Basin & Range Investigations for Developing Geothermal Energy (BRIDGE) projects.

Six Deep Direct-Use (DDU) project studies initiated in 2017 were completed in 2020 and are written up in a Geothermics paper which you can read here.

Geothermal drilling research focused on three areas:

  • Drilling efficiency improvements

  • Waterless stimulation techniques, and

  • Zonal isolation

The US has developed a National Geothermal Data System which can be accessed through here. The data which is primarily data for the USA is being progressively loaded.  Some data is available from other parts of the world.

Please read the country report for more information.



Kim Manunui

Hi, I’m Kim and I work with a great team to help individuals, as well as small and not so small businesses get their message, product and services to the world using digital media and creating wonderful websites that don’t cost the earth.

I was born in Canada, and grew up around Vancouver and the mountains of British Columbia. My love of pristine environments led me to New Zealand and eventually to the mountains, lakes and rivers of the central North Island which is home. My family’s heritage is here, and it’s from here that Korio traverses the planet.

The digital world is never static and neither are we.

And I say ‘we’ because I work with an awesome group of talented people who I gather together as required to complete a project.  Whatever your business, not-for-profit or individual needs are we gather the best team to get the job done.

Collaboratively we are creative, share sustainable values and work hard for great outcomes because that’s the buzz of satisfaction that drives us.

If you have an audience and market to reach, we can make that happen. Creative design, words that work and smart behind the scenes stuff that cuts through the online noise. We’ll design your website and then build it. We’ll manage the content as well as all your hosting needs. We can handle your online advertising so you get noticed,
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