Geothermal Center of Excellence

The Geothermal Center of Excellence is the geothermal industry's entry point to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories, connecting stakeholders with laboratory capabilities, facilities, and multidisciplinary teams to address high-impact technical barriers.

Established by DOE's Hydrocarbons and Geothermal Energy Office (HGEO), the Geothermal Center of Excellence will unite expertise and capabilities from across DOE's national laboratories to accelerate the discovery and development of gigawatt-scale geothermal energy, resource discovery, and commercial development. The National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) will lead the consortium, with support from the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL).

Goals

The goals of the center are to:

• Reduce technical barriers
• Achieve measurable progress toward industry cost and scale targets
• Accelerate industry-lab partnerships, connecting industry with specialized expertise across the national laboratory system
• Harness synergies with other HGEO centers of excellence at NETL.

National Laboratory Partners

In addition to NLR and NETL, national laboratory partners at the center include:

• Argonne National Laboratory
• Brookhaven National Laboratory
• Idaho National Laboratory
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Oak Ridge National Laboratory
• Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
• Sandia National Laboratories.

Background

The HGEO Strategic Plan establishes centers of excellence in four areas that will enhance collaboration on key functional areas with industry, other national laboratories, and partners across the federal government and academia.

The HGEO centers of excellence are:

Coal

Oil & Gas

Critical Minerals and Advanced Alloys

Geothermal.

Mission

The Geothermal Center of Excellence, based in Golden, Colorado, will serve as a direct conduit between industry, academia, and the advanced capabilities of the national laboratories to align on the priority technical barriers that must be addressed to cost effectively scale and accelerate widespread geothermal deployment. 

Structure

The Center of Excellence is organized as a "hub and spoke" consortium model, with NLR acting as host and technical lead to coordinate consortium-wide goal-setting, industry involvement, and inquiry intakes. NLR will serve as the primary coordinating hub to draw upon specialized expertise from across the laboratory complex and external collaborators, with NETL serving as a cross-center of excellence integrator.

The "spokes" are partner national laboratories, which execute specific research tasks agreed upon by the center and contribute specialized capabilities based on institutional strengths.

HGEO, through the DOE Office of Geothermal, will provide strategic direction, oversight, and alignment of center activities with DOE priorities. The center does not replace any existing DOE processes or functions. 

Industry Advisory Board

The Industry Advisory Board for the Geothermal Center of Excellence provides objective insight on industry-relevant geothermal research needs, accelerates industry-lab partnerships, and advises on center priorities. Membership to the Industry Advisory Board is by invitation only.

Contact

For questions, contact geo.centerofexcellence@nlr.gov or subscribe to the Geothermal Center of Excellence Email List to stay up-to-date.