A consortium including GE Vernova Inc. has secured “awardable” status for rights to deliver geothermal electricity and battery energy storage to United States military bases, a joint statement said.
The partners could enable 5 megawatts of energy 24-7 at about 50 sites of the Department of Defense (DOD) “along the western Gulf of America and to the west of 101 degrees longitude”, the statement said.
Among the partners, Energy Systems Group is tasked with leading the design of power plants for the DOD. GE Vernova would provide its microgrid, power conversion and storage technologies.
“The team is also supported by the Energy & Geoscience Institute at The University of Utah (EGI), which brings over 30 years of experience in geothermal resource exploration and characterization”, the statement said.
The fourth partner, Sage Geosystem, would supply a patented pressure geothermal system that “operates like a multi-cylinder engine, utilizing two wells in an injection and production pattern to maximize efficiency and sustainability”, the statement said.
“With this expertise, the team is now poised to explore the development of utility-scale geothermal power plants in the United States and abroad, with the goal of supplying U.S. military bases with reliable and cost-effective electricity, even during grid outages”, it added.
The partners would provide “geothermal assessment expertise (EGI and Sage), drilling (Sage), power conversion, delivery, microgrid design and control (GE Vernova), hydrogen generation and storage (GE Vernova), and power generation and project development (Energy System Group)”, the statement said.
They would “explore how to tap into America’s abundant geothermal energy supply to increase national security”, it said.
According to the Department of Energy’s (DOE) roadmap for next-generation geothermal power, the U.S. can unlock 88 gigawatts (GW) through such geothermal technologies by 2050, with a potential for 125 GW.
By 2030, the DOE envisions 2-5 GW of added capacity to achieve commercial liftoff, which would need an investment of $20-25 billion.
The DOE said the targets could be achieved by implementing oil and gas technologies that overcome the geographic limitations of conventional geothermal methods.
“‘Next-generation’ technologies have the potential to engineer effective geothermal resources in commonly found environments, vastly expanding resource availability and potential commercial adoption”, said the DOE’s next-generation geothermal “Liftoff” report last year. “Although a nascent industry, next-generation geothermal enjoys several starting advantages, including transferrable technology, supply chains, and workforces from the oil & gas sector, that will help it achieve rapid scale.
“Recent field-scale pilots already provide a compelling roadmap for cost reductions necessary to achieve widespread commercial adoption of next-generation geothermal power.
“If the industry can achieve a set of market conditions around cost, demonstrations, value, and community engagement, commercial liftoff is attainable as early as 2030”.
Source: By Jov Onsat from Rigzone.om