A team of Stanford University graduate students has been selected to participate in the 2010-2011 National Geothermal Student Competition sponsored by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Program. The first-of-its-kind intercollegiate competition will challenge students to advance their understanding of geothermal energy’s potential as a significant contributor to the nation’s energy portfolio in the coming decades.
The Stanford University team is comprised of the following members: Sarah Pistone and John Murphy in the Energy Resources Engineering Department, Matt Ganser in the Civil Engineering Department, Pablo García Del Real in the Geological and Environmental Sciences Department, and Lena Perkins in the Mechanical Engineering Department. The team is supported by advisors Roland Horne in Energy Resources Engineering Department and Dennis Bird in the Geological and Environmental Sciences Department.
A total of eleven teams have been selected for a subcontract award to participate in the competition. Each team will conduct an assessment of the geothermal energy potential in the Rio Grande Rift area of southeastern Colorado and northeastern New Mexico during spring term 2011. The teams competing in the inaugural competition are:
• Colorado School of Mines - Golden, Colorado
• Oregon Institute of Technology - Klamath Falls, Oregon
• The Pennsylvania State University - University Park, Pennsylvania
• San Diego State University - San Diego, California
• Stanford University – Palo Alto, California
• Texas A&M;University – College Station, Texas
• University of California, Davis – Davis, California
• University of Idaho – Moscow, Idaho
• University of North Dakota – Grand Forks, North Dakota
• The University of Utah – Salt Lake City, Utah
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University – Blacksburg, Virginia
Teams will develop innovative plans for tapping into the geothermal resources of the area. In June 2011, each team will submit their findings and recommendations for accessing and developing the geothermal resources in the Rio Grande Rift and then present their findings to a judging committee at the Final Forum in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Each project will be judged based on technical approach, overall quality of work, and potential relevance of findings to the future development of the Rio Grande Rift.
The National Geothermal Competition will provide students with opportunities to gain important industry knowledge, skills and experience, and prepare them to answer the Administration’s call to play a significant role in shaping the country’s clean energy future by contributing to the growth of geothermal energy in America. Geothermal energy, or heat from the earth, is a clean, renewable energy base-load resource that has the ability to produce energy consistently while emitting little or no green¬house gas emissions. Including geothermal resources in the nation’s energy portfolio will help decrease our dependence on foreign oil while building a domestic clean energy supply.
Learn more at the Competition website at http://www.nrel.gov/geothermal/competition.html