Data From Power Production Units Can Benefit Industry

July 21, 2015 | By Wayne Hicks | Contact media relations

For more than 5 years, DOE has been leveraging its ownership of two 250-kilowatt geothermal power production units to gather field data that will benefit the industry.

"Commercial development of smaller-scale, low-temperature geothermal power production has been limited," said Neil Snyder, NREL principal investigator. "The intended benefit of DOE efforts is to provide actual demonstration data to industry, with the intent to facilitate greater understanding of this potential power source."

With support from the DOE Geothermal Technologies Office, NREL has been actively identifying potential research partners. "We're in preliminary discussions with a company in California, but our plan is to get as much interest from as many potential partners as possible," said Neil.