Utah FORGE ReceIves $80 million from DOE

October 3, 2024
Above: Milford, UT. Through new drilling techniques, FORGE aims to make geothermal power accessible in a wider range of terrains.

 

An agreement has been signed between the U.S. Department of Energy and the Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (informally known as Utah FORGE) to continue the project through 2028. The agreement includes an additional $80 million in funding over the next four years.

Managing Principal Investigator Joseph Moore, professor in the U’s department of Geology and Geophysics, says that “this next phase allows us to build on our important achievements and to further develop and de-risk the tools and technologies necessary to unlock the potential of next-generation geothermal power.”

Utah FORGE is managed by a team at the Energy & Geoscience Institute, part of the University of Utah’s John and Marcia Price College of Engineering.

Kris Pankow

Earlier this year, in April, Utah FORGE achieved a critical breakthrough after hydraulically stimulating and circulating water through heated rock formations a mile and a half beneath its drill site in the Utah desert and bringing hot water to the surface. The test results are seen as an important step forward in the search for new ways to use Earth’s subsurface heat to produce hot water for generating emissions-free electricity. The successful well stimulations and a nine-hour circulation test were the fruits of years of planning and data analysis at the Utah FORGE facility near Milford, 175 miles southwest of Salt Lake City.

More than two-thirds of the water that was injected underground and pushed through the fractured formation — acquiring heat on the way — was extracted from a second well, offering proof that enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) technology could be viable, according to John McLennan, a co-principal investigator on the project formally at Utah FORGE.

“Nine hours is enough to prove that you have a connection and that you’re producing heat,” said McLennan, a U professor of chemical engineering. “It really is a Eureka moment. It’s been 60 years coming, and so this actually is significant.”

Equally promising was the absence of any noticeable ground shaking associated with the stimulations and circulation test. U seismologists led by geology professor Kris Pankow, associate director of the U of U Seismograph Stations, are overseeing an extensive network of seismometers to document ground movement associated with the project.

 

Learn more about the critical breakthrough earlier this year when FORGE team members hydraulically stimulated and circulated water through heated rock formations a mile and a half beneath its drill site and bringing hot water to the surface. Read the story by Brian Maffly in @TheU.