Energy Department Releases Five-Year RD&D Plan to Operationalize Geothermal Energy’s Key Role in Reaching U.S. Clean Energy Goals

Today, the Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) released its Multi-Year Program Plan (MYPP), a high-level strategy and five-year roadmap to achieve rapid acceleration in the advancement and deployment of geothermal technology. The MYPP, which builds on the findings of the 2019 GeoVision analysis, serves as an operational guide and resource to communicate GTO’s priorities and upcoming research, development, and demonstration opportunities to stakeholders and the public.   

The MYPP sets strategic goals of deploying 60 GW of enhanced geothermal systems and hydrothermal resources, as well as the installation of 17,500 geothermal district heating installations and 28 million geothermal heat pumps nationwide by 2050, and doing so in a way that delivers economic and environmental benefits. Achieving these goals can help add renewable power to the grid, can support building sectors, and is critical to reaching the Biden Administration’s ambitious climate targets.  

The MYPP identifies pathways toward meeting these goals through work conducted across six research areas. GTO will use it to plan and execute near-term RD&D activities while allowing for adaptation to changing market and technology conditions. 

The research areas are: 

• Exploration and characterization,
• Subsurface accessibility,
• Subsurface enhancement and sustainability,
• Resource maximization,
• Data, modeling, and analysis, and
• Geothermal integration and awareness.  

We invite you to read GTO's MYPP and consider how your ideas might help us reach a clean energy future that benefits all Americans.