US DOE to fund eight projects quantifying geothermal benefits to power grid
Power lines in Los Angeles, California (source: flickr/ JMR_Photography, creative commons)
Carlo Cariaga
31 Mar 2026
The US Department of Energy has published the list of projects that will receive funding to quantify the economic benefits of geothermal to the electricity grid.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Geothermal (OG) has selected eight project to be funded up to a total of USD 9.5 million under the GRID initiative, which had initially been announced in July 2024.
Using advanced modeling and analysis tools, these projects seek to quantify the economic benefits of geothermal electricity generation to the U.S. electricity grid. Determining the economic value of geothermal power generation to the grid will support more accurate pricing of geothermal power and attract investment in geothermal development.
The selected projects and their regional grid modeling locations are:
- Electric Power Research Institute (Western U.S.)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (California)
- National Laboratory of the Rockies (Colorado and New Mexico)
- Ohio State University (PJM Region)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (Pacific Northwest)
- Princeton University (Western U.S.)
- University of Texas at Austin (Texas)
- Southern Methodist University (Texas)
Projects will also assess current geothermal representation and identify best practices to incorporate geothermal power in regional utility planning processes, model system integration impacts of geothermal power to specific regions of the U.S. grid, and apply metrics to evaluate the role of geothermal power in the grid.
Source: US Department of Energy
