Project Innerspace and XPRIZE collaborate to address geothermal surface systems bottleneck
The XPRIZE design aims to be the necessary catalyst to unlock geothermal growth at scale. (source: Project Innerspace)
Carlo Cariaga
6 Apr 2026
Project Innerspace and XPRIZE are designing a new incentive prize that aims to address bottlenecks related with geothermal surface systems.
Project Innerspace and XPRIZE have announced a new collaboration to design a new incentive prize aimed at driving innovation and supply chain transformation in integrated geothermal surface plant systems, including turbo-machinery and other surface system components. The prize design, funded by Project Innerspace, aims to address eliminate the bottleneck associated with turbo-machinery, particularly limited manufacturing capacities, long lead times, and the need for highly customized designs.
The framing of the prize is based on interviews that the design team has done with manufacturers, developers, and experts. The insight from these interviews indicate that today’s geothermal surface systems are still highly customized, thus resulting in longer lead times, slow project delivery, and limited opportunities for supply chain learning.
Turbo-machinery design is also deeply coupled with the broader surface plant, including heat exchangers and cooling systems. This means that creating a step-change needed for rapid geothermal scale-up will require innovation in the entire ecosystem of surface geothermal systems.
A formal prize structure announcement expected later in 2026. Project InnerSpace and XPRIZE welcome engagement from turbo-machinery manufacturers, developers, investors, researchers, and policymakers who wish to contribute to the prize design process.
“The subsurface solutions that will drive scaled development of next-generation geothermal energy are well on their way thanks to several years of disruptive innovation and frontier spirit in the field. We now need to match that momentum above ground,” said Jamie Beard, Executive Director of Project InnerSpace.
“In short order, the turbo-machinery supply chain will be the bottleneck standing between next-generation geothermal and the gigawatt-scale deployment the world needs. XPRIZE’s model of ambitious, results-driven competition is exactly the kind of forcing function that can accelerate this transition.”
Through the prize design process, the team is also exploring how to avoid over-constraining the solution space. Rather than prescribing a single technology pathway, the competition is expected to focus on performance-based outcomes that leave room for different approaches, including innovations in turbines, working fluids, heat exchange systems, and other integrated surface plant configurations.
The goal is to identify designs that can deliver competitive system performance across a range of operating conditions, while enabling step-change improvements in standardization, manufacturability, transportability, and deployment speed.
“XPRIZE was built on the idea that the right incentive, at the right moment, can unlock innovation that markets alone are too slow or too constrained to deliver,” said David Babson, PhD, EVP of Energy, Climate, & Nature at XPRIZE.
“In geothermal, the opportunity is increasingly about creating more deployable, efficient, and scalable systems that can translate growing capital and demand into real projects on the ground. We are excited to work with Project InnerSpace to shape a prize that can help do exactly that.”
RELATED: Google Cloud partners with SLB, Project Innerspace for geothermal resource identification
