USA:

Up to $1.15 Million Available for Small Businesses to Create Innovations in Geothermal Energy (EERE/GTO)

Geothermal Topic Announced for Small Business Innovation Research

On October 27, the United States Department of Energy announced the topics for an upcoming funding opportunity for small businesses which include two geothermal subtopics: a) innovations to develop under-utilized markets and b) a technology transfer opportunity for coproduced geothermal resources. This grant will be issued on November 24, 2014. Letters of intent are due December 15 and full applications by February 3, 2015.

The first of these categories focuses on innovative products or technologies that develop new markets for geothermal energy. The Geothermal Technologies Office seeks to fund electricity production or direct use applications but excludes ground source heat pumps. All innovations in new markets are welcome, including geographic locations, such as the eastern United States, new technological applications – power storage or other ancillary services, for example – and new revenue streams, including cascading direct use applications.

The technology transfer opportunity is targeted to enable wider use of co-produced geothermal resources, specifically by developing a product that uses electromagnetic manipulation of magnetizable oil – a Fermi Lab developed technology under Patent No. 8795519 – to improve current oil/gas/water separation technologies.

Visit the Energy Department's Small Business Innovation Research website for more information and to register for an informative webinar on November 7.