USA:

DOE Announces Notice of Intent for EGS Observatory (EERE/GTO)

The U.S. Energy Department announced last Friday its intent to issue a funding opportunity to establish a dedicated subsurface laboratory called the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE).

This first-of-its-kind effort will promote transformative and high-risk/high-reward science and engineering focused on addressing critical barriers to Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). 

FORGE will enable testing of new technologies and techniques, with a central focus on EGS optimization and validation. In addition, the new initiative will include a robust instrumentation, data collection, and data dissemination effort to capture and share in real-time a higher-fidelity picture of EGS creation and evolution processes than any prior geothermal demonstration in the world. It will also provide a collaborative and inclusive platform for advancement of EGS via participation from geothermal and other subsurface stakeholders. 

Finally, FORGE will allow for the highly-integrated comparison of technologies and tools in a controlled and well-characterized environment. Critical knowledge obtained at FORGE will inform the development of a methodology for reproducing large-scale, economically-sustainable heat exchange systems.

The full text of this Notice of Intent is available on EERE Exchange.

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