With a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Cockrell School of Engineering is launching a unique initiative that aims to make The University of Texas at Austin a national hub for geothermal energy expertise and startups. The new Geothermal Entrepreneurship Organization (GEO) will bring together engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs to develop technologies and launch companies to help advance the geothermal energy industry.
The organization, led by Jamie Beard and Bob Metcalfe of the Cockrell School’s Innovation Center, aims to leverage areas of excellence in geosystems and drilling engineering at UT to spur geothermal technology development and maturation. The effort will engage all groups with relevant expertise within the Cockrell School, UT’s Jackson School of Geosciences, the Bureau of Economic Geology, the College of Natural Sciences and the university’s more than 20 energy research centers. Beard and Metcalfe plan to complement that expertise with the vast community of entrepreneurial talent across campus and in Austin.
“It’s a straightforward concept. Drilling technically complex, high-temperature and high-pressure wells is a core strength of the oil and gas industry. Let’s use all of that learning and expertise to drill for heat — tapping a vast CO2-free, clean energy source,” Beard said. “We want to take advantage of Texas’ existing intellectual capital and leadership in geosciences and drilling to build the future of energy. By leveraging technologies and methodologies developed here over the past century and building upon them with new innovations, Texas can pioneer our clean energy future. And doing this won’t require a moonshot. We can make geothermal energy a ubiquitous utility within a decade.”