Researchers at The George Washington University, University of Chicago and The University of Texas at Austin have developed a new method directly to extract and to purify lithium hydroxide from geothermal brines. An open-access paper on their work is published in Nature Communications. In this work, we design an economically... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) announced $30 million to increase geothermal power production by unlocking superhot reservoirs deep within the Earth. (DE-FOA-0003556) Currently, geothermal baseload production in the US is limited to 4 gigawatts (GW). ARPA-E’s Stimulate Utilization of Plentiful Energy in Rocks through... Read more →

Vulcan, a company using naturally occurring geothermal heat to extract lithium from underground geothermal brine and then convert it into battery-grade material, and BASF have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the use of geothermal energy at the chemical company’s Ludwigshafen site as part of a strategic partnership. The... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced the winners of its first-ever American-Made Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize. Three teams will split a total of $2 million for prototyped innovations to directly extract lithium from the hot water used to produce geothermal energy, known as geothermal brines. Lithium is a crucial... Read more →

Vulcan Energy Resources, a renewable energy producer and carbon-neutral lithium developer, has commenced commissioning of its Lithium Extraction Optimization Plant (LEOP) for the purpose of extraction, purification, and concentration of lithium chloride from brine in the Upper Rhine Valley in Germany. This milestone represents a major step forward by Vulcan... Read more →

Stellantis N.V. and Controlled Thermal Resources Holdings Inc. (CTR) announced a major investment of more than $100 million from Stellantis to advance the development of CTR’s Hell’s Kitchen project (earlier post), the world’s largest geothermal lithium project with a total resource capacity to produce up to 300,000 metric tons of... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award $10.9 million to 10 projects across nine states that will advance innovative technologies to extract and convert battery-grade lithium from geothermal brine sources in the United States. (DE-FOA-0002823, earlier post) Currently, the United States has limited capabilities to produce and refine domestically... Read more →

Controlled Thermal Resources Holdings Inc. (CTR) has engaged Aquatech as its technology partner to deliver the engineering and process plants for the conversion of lithium chloride intermediate product to battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate at the CTR’s Stage 1 Lithium Hydroxide Facility. (Earlier post.) Aquatech will utilize a high-purity lithium chloride... Read more →

Stellantis N.V. and Vulcan Energy Resources Limited have signed a binding term sheet for the first phase of a multiphase project to develop new geothermal projects aimed at decarbonizing the energy mix of Stellantis’ Mulhouse industrial site in France, which is home to the DS 7, Peugeot 308 and 308... Read more →

Project InnerSpace, a non-profit organization focused on removing barriers to exponential geothermal growth by 2030, announced that the US Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded a $165-million Geothermal Energy from Oil and gas Demonstrated Engineering (GEODE) grant (earlier post) to a consortium formed by Project InnerSpace, the Society of Petroleum... Read more →

Vulcan Energy Resources signed a Term Sheet agreement with Nobian GmbH (Nobian) for the formation of a 50/50 joint venture over, and equity financing of, Vulcan’s Central Lithium Plant (CLP), which forms part of Vulcan’s Zero Carbon Lithium Project (earlier post). The strategic partnership is subject to the parties entering... Read more →

Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) (earlier post) and Fuji Electric Corp. of America (FEA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to complete multiple Equipment, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contracts for the delivery of geothermal power facilities at CTR’s Hell’s Kitchen Lithium and Power Project located in Imperial County, California. The EPC contracts... Read more →

Geothermal lithium producer Vulcan Energy Resources signed a Binding Term Sheet (BTS) with Stellantis for the first phase of a multiphase project aimed at decarbonizing the energy mix of the Rüsselsheim manufacturing site in the Upper Rhine Valley, Germany, by developing new geothermal projects. In June 2022, Stellantis made a... Read more →

Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) reports that its engineering team has improved several process stages, including optimization of the brine preparation stage, to achieve highly efficient recovery of lithium, in real-time, from the company’s live Salton Sea geothermal brine resource. (Earlier post.) CTR took an integrated design approach to optimize the... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) issued a $12-million Funding Opportunity Announcement (DE‐FOA‐0002823) to support the extraction and conversion of lithium from geothermal brines to use in batteries for stationary storage and electric vehicles. Geothermal brines are a byproduct of geothermal power that contain a host of minerals, including lithium.... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced its intent to issue a funding opportunity (DE-FOA-0002823) that will support research on the extraction and conversion of lithium from geothermal brines for use of lithium batteries in electric vehicles and clean energy storage. Geothermal brines—a byproduct of geothermal power—have become a proven,... Read more →

Chevron New Energies, and Mitsui Oil Exploration (MOECO) signed a Joint Collaboration Agreement to explore the technical and commercial feasibility of advanced geothermal power generation in Japan. Building on Chevron and MOECO’s long-standing relationship, the new collaboration will study geothermal resource potential across Japan and will evaluate the effectiveness of... Read more →

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) field laboratory announced up to $44 million for up to 17 projects to develop and test technology to foster innovation in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). Geothermal energy has the potential to provide electricity as well as... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award up to $165 million to expand US geothermal energy deployment. The Geothermal Energy from Oil and Gas Demonstrated Engineering (GEODE) initiative (DE-FOA-0002632) solicits an administrator to establish and lead a consortium that will facilitate collaborative research, development, and demonstration (RD&D). Goals for... Read more →

Lars Carlstrom, the founder-CEO of Italvolt, announced the launch of a new company, Statevolt, which will construct a 54GWh Gigafactory in Imperial Valley, southern California with an expected CapEx of $4 billion. To launch the new facility, Statevolt has also signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Controlled Thermal Resources... Read more →

The Salton Sea geothermal field in California potentially holds enough lithium to meet all of the US’ domestic battery needs, with even enough left over to export some of it. (Earlier post.) There are currently 11 commercial plants at the Salton Sea field producing geothermal energy, a process in which... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) selected four new projects to receive up to $8.4 million to establish new geothermal energy and heat production from abandoned oil and gas wells. With this funding, DOE is partnering with existing well owners and operators to use their idle or unproductive wells to... Read more →

Vulcan Energy Resources has agreed to acquire an operational geothermal renewable energy power plant in the Upper Rhine Valley at Insheim, Germany, through the acquisition of 100% of the shares in the entity which owns and operates the plant. A new Germany subsidiary of Vulcan, based in Karlsruhe, will be... Read more →

Controlled Thermal Resources (CTR) has begun the company’s drilling program, initiating Stage One of the Hell’s Kitchen Lithium and Power project in Imperial, California. Hell’s Kitchen is the first geothermal project to be built at the Salton Sea in ten years and is the world’s first, fully integrated, new geothermal-lithium... Read more →

Vulcan Energy Resources, which intends to produce a battery-quality lithium hydroxide chemical product from a combined geothermal energy and lithium resource (earlier post), will purchase 3D seismic and drilling data from Rhein Petroleum GmbH. Rhein Petroleum is an exploration and production oil and gas company with many years of experience... Read more →

In the BrineMine research project, researchers from Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, together with their partners, are developing strategies and methods for extracting mineral resources directly in geothermal power plants. Here, not only energy and minerals are to be extracted, but also drinking water. Important process steps have already been successfully... Read more →

Vulcan Energy Resources will collaborate with DuPont Water Solutions,a leader in water filtration and purification, to test and to scale up Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) solutions for Vulcan’s Zero Carbon Lithium extraction process. (Earlier post.) DuPont will leverage its portfolio of proprietary Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) products to assist Vulcan... Read more →

Thermal Energy Partners (TEP), a developer of geothermal energy projects, and Schlumberger New Energy, a new Schlumberger business, entered into an agreement to create GeoFrame Energy, a geothermal project development company. GeoFrame Energy will leverage its partners’ expertise to develop efficient and profitable geothermal power generation projects worldwide, providing reliable,... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award up to $28 million to five projects to promote the advancement of the next generation of geothermal energy technologies. Selected by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office these projects align with the goals of the 2019 GeoVision... Read more →

Scientists at KIT have developed and patented a process for minimally invasive technology to mine lithium in geothermal plants. The plan is to extract lithium using a minimally invasive process from the deep waters in geothermal plants of the Upper Rhine Graben—an area that has particularly favorable geological conditions for... Read more →

The California Energy Commission (CEC) awarded $7.8 to two lithium recovery projects. Uniquely high concentrations of the dissolved soft metal are found in the brine produced by the state’s geothermal hotspots. The Salton Sea Known Geothermal Area contains an estimated six million tons of recoverable lithium within presently available geothermal... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $5.5 million for 10 new projects to apply machine learning techniques to geothermal exploration and production. Machine learning—the use of advanced algorithms to identify patterns in and make inferences from data—could assist in finding and developing new geothermal resources. If applied... Read more →

The cost of generating power from renewable energy sources has reached parity or dropped below the cost of fossil fuels for many technologies in many parts of the world, according to a new report released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA). The report, “Renewable Power Generation Costs in 2014”,... Read more →

The California Energy Commission approved nearly $18 million to fund projects that will help the state meet its climate and energy goals. Twelve million dollars will go toward three alternative fuel projects, $4 million will help fund two geothermal projects and $3.5 million will help fund local energy efficiency projects.... Read more →

A new Energy Department study conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) indicates that by 2025 wind and solar power electricity generation could become cost-competitive without federal subsidies, if new renewable energy development occurs in the most productive locations. The cost of generation includes any needed transmission and integration... Read more →

Schematic diagram of a shale gas well following hydraulic fracture treatment, with the relative depths of local water wells shown for scale. Formation depths and horizontal well length varies; numbers shown are approximate length and depth averages in North America. The upper right inset shows the fractures (yellow) created during... Read more →

Escalating investment in geothermal power could result in a 134% increase in global geothermal capacity between 2010 and 2020, from 10.7 gigawatts (GW) to 25.1 GW, under a high-growth forecast scenario, according to a report by Pike Research. Under a more conservative business-as-usual forecast scenario, Pike estimates that geothermal power... Read more →

Ranges of global technical potentials of renewable energy sources derived from studies analyzed in SRREN report. Biomass and solar are shown as primary energy due to their multiple uses. Note that the figure is presented in logarithmic scale due to the wide range of assessed data. Source: SRREN. Click to... Read more →

The Department of Energy (DOE) has selected 37 energy research projects for $151 million in funding through the recently formed Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). This is the first round of projects funded under ARPA-E, which is receiving total of $400 million under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Among... Read more →

PNNL’s metal-organic heat carrier (MOHC) in the biphasic fluid may help improve thermodynamic efficiency of the heat recovery process. This image represents the molecular makeup of one of several MOHCs. Source: PNNL. Click to enlarge. Scientists at the US Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have developed a... Read more →

Oxford Catalysts Group PLC has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Potter Drilling, Inc., a google.org funded company, to explore the incorporation of Oxford Catalysts’ Instant Steam technology (earlier post) into Potter Drilling’s hydrothermal spallation technology for drilling geothermal wells. Geothermal wells can be slow and expensive to... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will provide up to $43.1 million over four years (subject to annual appropriations) to 21 awardees, including a 13 awards to first-time recipients, for research, development and demonstration of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) for next-generation geothermal energy technologies. Combined with the minimum industry cost-share... Read more →

Google Earth map of US geothermal resources at 7.5 km depth. Click to enlarge. Google, through its philanthropic arm Google.org, is investing US$10.25 million to advance the development of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) technology. The investment includes funding for research on next-generation geothermal resource mapping, EGS information tools, and a... Read more →

EGS cutaway diagram. Click to enlarge. The US Department of Energy (DOE) issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for up to $90 million over four years to advance the research, development and demonstration of next-generation geothermal energy technology to harness the earth’s interior heat extracted from hot water or rocks.... Read more →

Johnson Controls, Inc. is expanding its business into designing, installing and servicing geothermal, solar, biomass, wind and other renewable sources as energy supply options for customers. Johnson Controls is a global leader in interior experience, building efficiency and power solutions. Johnson Controls provides batteries for automobiles and hybrid electric vehicles,... Read more →

Ormat binary geothermal power generation system. Click to enlarge. Ormat Technologies, Inc., a geothermal and recovered energy business, has signed a shared-cost Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the US Department of Energy (DOE) to validate the feasibility of using geothermal power generation technology for the production of commercial... Read more →

Schematic of a conceptual two-well Enhanced Geothermal System in hot rock in a low-permeability crystalline basement formation. Click to enlarge. A comprehensive new MIT-led study of the potential for geothermal energy within the United States has found that Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) technology could supply a substantial portion of US... Read more →