Innovative Exploration Technologies: A Retrospective

Abstract

The mission of the Hydrothermal Program of the Geothermal Technologies Office has been to reduce exploration, development, and deployment risk by improving the characterization of the subsurface in pre-drilling and preliminary borehole exploration technologies. Historically, the “success” of DOE-funded geothermal exploration efforts has been measured and reported in variable ways. These have included: the ability of a project to meet its self-defined goals, objectives and deliverables; and the degree to which a project advances the state of knowledge in a particular area. Moving toward a way to evaluate project success in a more quantifiable sense is desirable. This paper provides an overview of recent efforts to evaluate the success of Innovative Exploration Technology (IET) projects that were funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) between 2009 and 2015. This effort expands upon outcomes and impacts conversations with the Technical Monitoring Team, as well as the Exploration task of the Geothermal Vision Study that is currently underway. This effort aims to summarize, categorize, and evaluate the proposed work, completed work, and lessons learned for each of the 25 IET projects. This paper provides an introduction and preliminary progress on the IET retrospective—more comprehensive results and analysis will be incorporated in the forthcoming Geothermal Vision Study and potentially other future publications.