While it is certainly true that technology is advancing rapidly that targets one, or both, of these barriers by enabling deeper drilling, lower temperature resource utilization, closed loops and enhanced geothermal systems, there is one critical and unchangeable fact: geothermal energy is not a commodity.

One cannot ship a barrel of hot water around the world for consumption, as we do with fossil fuels. Of course, geothermal power can be generated and transmitted over long distances, or in some rare cases, such as Iceland, the hot water piped directly over long distances for heating. But in both cases, there are losses that still restrict the economic utilization of a geothermal resource to being a regional source of renewable energy.

In recent times, governments and industries alike have recognized the incredible potential that hydrogen can play in global decarbonization, especially in the context of transportation fuel. In this vision, green hydrogen is the apex, as it is defined as hydrogen produced using renewable energy through electrolysis. Most think that solar, wind, and hydro are the renewable power source behind green hydrogen. However, the real golden ticket is baseload geothermal power.

The advantage of geothermal power generation is that it runs full time and is not impacted by whether or not the sun is shining or wind is blowing; it provides consistent, baseload power output capability that makes it a perfect energy provider for green hydrogen facilities that operate in the same manner.

Geothermal and green hydrogen designated as a system is a symbiotic relationship with incredible advantages that only come when they are paired together; baseload power supply maintains hydrogen production 24 hours a day, surface footprint is minimized, and government subsidies can be stacked to enable development. Since green hydrogen can be transported or stored for later use, it is the method that enables the pseudo-commoditization of geothermal energy.

There are many remote locations around the world, and especially in the Pacific Rim “Ring of Fire,” where vast geothermal resources exist but with small local populations, and therefore limited need to utilize these resources to its full potential or have a means to fund the development. However, coupling this with green hydrogen, there is now a new model emerging that greatly increases the attractiveness of geothermal in remote areas.

This is not going unnoticed by the industry as well: the recent Halcyon Project in New Zealand has just been finished, which is a green hydrogen plant powered by local geothermal power. Other projects like Meager Creek Development Corporation in British Columbia are in planning, but there are also some extremely visionary organizations like Fortescue Future Industries who are laser-focused on bringing green hydrogen to the world and relying on massive amounts of geothermal energy to enable it.

Now that the possibilities of enabling a pseudo-commoditization of geothermal with green hydrogen are taking shape, how is the other primary challenge of development cost covered with this partnership? While there is government policy being implemented in many countries financing and supporting the development of green hydrogen, I’ll focus just on the USA as an example. The new Infrastructure and Jobs Act (IIJA) created an Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, with a budget of about $21.5 billion dollars, designated to meet a set of 10 goals. While geothermal energy is not mentioned specifically, it can easily be interpreted that several areas of the funding could go to geothermal developments to help meet the greater goals.

Of that $21.5 billion budget, the largest portion, $8 billion, is designed for “Regional clean hydrogen hubs,” which is inclusive of the producers, consumers and infrastructure needed to build out the network. The Office has the goal of developing at least four hubs in different regions of the U.S., with at least one being a green hydrogen facility. (The others are blue hydrogen, fueled by splitting natural gas into hydrogen and CO2.)

Of course, there are massive power requirements for green hydrogen generation facilities and networks of this size, and it is interpreted that this funding would be inclusive of the power source required. The actual footprint of how a network would look is beyond my area of expertise, but it seems reasonable to think that there would be a mix of centralized/direct power sources; Centralized geothermal power plants for hydrogen generation and compression facilities, and then decentralized facilities (such as H2 fueling stations) that would purchase the renewable energy from the grid, or simply be powered by hydrogen-fueled generators on-site.

Many questions still exist. For example, if a geothermal power plant is built 50 miles from a green hydrogen generation facility, is it considered a part of the hydrogen hub and therefore qualify for funding? However, it is expected the criteria and structure is something that will become clearer as we move though 2022. It seems highly plausible that portions of this $8 billion will become available to geothermal developers and lease holders such as Fervo Energy, Cyrq and Ormat. They have a huge potential to benefit from this, as does the industry as a whole.

Geothermal has always had to struggle to gain visibility for the funding needed to expand development. But with an incredible amount of funding going into green hydrogen, “piggybacking” into this area opens doors for a high volume of geothermal development in more geographically diverse regions.

The green hydrogen industry and geothermal industry have an enormous degree of synergy to offer each other and are better together. A goal of unification, both in terms of joint project development and global policy creation, should be established by leaders of both industries to take full advantage of the opportunities at hand and better foster the energy transition.

The thoughts and opinions in this essay are mine and not those of my employer.

In the competition, student teams assume the role of a geothermal developer, devising direct-use strategies to heat and cool buildings, campuses, or districts. The competition fosters project development, design, and communications skills while boosting public understanding of geothermal power as a direct, renewable source of energy. Team submissions include a use case, resource assessment, usage evaluation, and a plan to engage the local community.

The recently completed Spring 2021 round of the competition included geothermal concepts designed for Native American reservations, universities, mixed-use communities, and hospital campuses.

Student competitors can also participate in a series of virtual trainings on geothermal site planning tools and practices. Upcoming trainings include the GEOPHIRES geothermal techno-economic simulation tool, environmental regulations and permitting for geothermal projects, the GeoRePORT Socio-Economic Assessment Tool, and reservoir modeling tips and tricks.

Winners and finalists will be recognized in a live Department of Energy announcement and press release as well as National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) news stories. The competition also includes $50,000 in cash prizes to student teams and their universities.

First, second, and third-place winners will also plan and host live, on-site events to educate relevant stakeholders about their proposed projects during the summer of 2022.

Ready to heat up spring 2022? Sign up, create a team, and upload the first required phase of your submission by Feb. 17, 2022. If you know of an educator or students who might be interested, help NREL spread the word.

NREL competition administrators are also looking for members of the geothermal industry to serve as competition judges. To volunteer as a judge, reviewing student submissions and providing valuable feedback, email geo.competition@nrel.gov.

Forget what you may have heard about geothermal. Remove the vision of beautiful people in steamy swimming pools and spas, or scenic landscapes of volcanoes and geysers. The Earth energy we need to unlock is everywhere beneath you. This ubiquitous and constant energy is below your home, your workplace, and below you right now as you read this article. Our human senses in our regular daily lives simply don’t see that energy, and we don’t feel it. That energy is always there, flowing up from deep below the rocky crust we inhabit, from our Earth’s very core. It’s been that way for four and a half billion years and will continue for as long as the Earth exists, no matter what our human capabilities do to it.

The beauty in this energy elephant is that it can be unlocked in a multitude of different ways. It’s energy that can power our needs through electricity generation or by using it directly for both heating and cooling. It can bring equity and be equitable. It can be used for our transport and our homes, or grow our food and provide for our essential needs to survive. Earth energy is truly an elephant among its peers! And then there’s the cage. The technologies have been decades in development as it takes ingenuity, effort, and patience to tame. This elephant has also been locked away from us because the energy market conditions have not led to the support and investment that it deserves. Now is the time to unlock it.

Whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not, we need a renewable and clean energy future. Our society must become carbon neutral as soon as possible. Climate change is an international emergency that is already affecting human civilization and it isn’t going to be good. We need to minimize those climate affects as much as possible, which means kicking the habit from fossil fuels. It means changing the way we live our lives from our petrol fueled cars through to piping natural gas into our homes and industries. It means bringing greater electrification and heat management. Sorry to bring you this bad news, but your propane barbecue will eventually become obsolete!

Our renewable and clean energy future needs electricity generation from solar and wind sources. It needs us to use hydroelectricity and tidal energy. It needs us to change our habits to a more efficient way to use our energy and it needs us to learn how to store energy when we have it available and don’t immediately use it. But it also needs something big, very big! We need an energy source that is always on, no matter the time of day, or day of the year, or what the weather is doing. There needs to be a constant flow of clean and renewable energy that we can use instead of the traditional and polluting baseload power sources like coal, gas, or nuclear.

The reason we need to unlock this elephant is because of what I will refer to as the California Renewables Syndrome. The California Renewables Syndrome is not some form of entertaining spy thriller! It is the inability to transition California to a future of high intermittent renewables without an adaptable always-on energy source that can meet our basic energy needs at any time and any place. Without that ubiquitous source, our clean energy vision is stranded and our quest for decarbonization is beyond reach. California is leading the way in building out intermittent renewable energy and should be applauded, but it’s now reached a tipping point of diminishing returns. It can’t simply transition its power system; instead, it needs to be transformational in its entire energy use. As with many things we now use in our lives, from Google to smoked salmon pizza, the world needs to look to California for taking the lead.

The California Renewables Syndrome is caused because wind and solar can’t provide electricity all the time and aren’t effective everywhere. These energy sources are not secure, reliable, or resilient. The California State government has discovered they need to install nearly five times the solar and wind capacity to replace each unit of traditional baseload capacity, just to have enough energy in the system when the intermittent sources are switched on in regular conditions, and that’s in a State that’s conducive to these sources. On a good day, they’ve discovered that when intermittent sources are running well there is too much energy, and on a bad day, when they become unavailable due to some adverse conditions, then there is way too little energy. In between the daily times of feast and famine, daytime and nighttime, there is a need for huge acceleration of electricity onto the power grid from something else. Energy storage can help to smooth out short term supplies, but as wind and solar projects continue to be built out then that amount of energy demand in just a few hours becomes increasingly challenging.

To make things even worse for our clean energy vision, California is feeling this syndrome without a solution to longer-term seasonal demands that will occur with electrification as we reduce reliance on fossil fuels. These seasonal demands will work against the efficiency of solar, when electricity needs increase during cooler temperatures and longer winter nights. And California doesn’t experience the collective heating and cooling challenges that are far more serious in other regions of the planet. Globally, these needs alone contribute over half of all emitted greenhouse gases. The California Renewables Syndrome means that without a big renewable and clean energy source filling the hole then a continuing reliance on polluting baseload is needed or else the lights, and the electric vehicle chargers, will switch off.

And so the elephant in its cage enters the room! People in California are also very lucky because the elephant there can be unlocked with reasonable ease. It happens that the State is the international heart of the geothermal power industry with readily available resources that can be developed with today’s technologies. The California State government has finally handed over the keys to the cage by demanding the power industry procure more geothermal energy to come to its aid. New technologies, entrepreneurs, and startups are now entering the market, and are following research programs funded by the State and Federal governments. And with greater innovation and increasing efficiency then that ability to unlock earth energy at large scales will broaden out to all regions of the globe.

As our delegates at COP26 convene in the halls of the Scottish Event Campus over the coming days they will debate the greatest challenge to our civilization that we’ve ever faced. How many of them know they are walking and sitting on the solution to their problems? Like the sun shining in the sky, the Earth in its own way is shining beneath them. Many of them probably don’t even realize the issues faced in California and instead call for an ever-increasing use of intermittent renewables that can only partly satisfy our long-term needs for clean power and heat, will not get society to carbon neutral, and will not give us the decarbonized lives we need. So, unlock the elephant in the room, point to your feet, and shout it out, “Earth energy will save our Earth”.

We regret to announce Charles “Les” Goetting, passed away Sunday September 12th in the comfort of his home in Ventura, CA after a long battle with Leukemia.
 
Les founded Project Engineering in 1983 and built PE into the premier supplier of casing accessories and completion tools that it is today.  Over the past five years as his health declined, Les retired and hand selected a team of trusted individuals to carry Project Engineering forward. The PE Team is saddened about Les’ passing as he was not just a boss, but a friend, a mentor and father figure. He was greatly loved and will be missed by all who knew him. We would like to thank everyone who kept Les in their prayers and thoughts.
 
The funeral service date and time will be announced in the days to come.
 
Per Les’ wishes, in lieu of flowers or gifts, donations can be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital on his behalf.

 
Any Cards or letters can be sent to the Project Engineering office at:
12611 South Enos Lane
Bakersfield, CA 93311