Updated by Staff

The DOE has announced grants totaling $18 million will be awarded Colorado businesses and organizations as part of an  economic stimulus package to fund geothermal energy projects.

Overall, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $338 million worth of grants for 129 geothermal  projects in 39 states.  Because it is a CO2–free and virtually unlimited energy source, geothermal holds plenty of potential in the eyes of clean energy advocates, but  the emphasis is on “potential,” as the process of locating and harnessing  geothermal energy sources  large enough to impact the power industry remains elusive, not to mention time-consuming and expensive. Clearly, the government is hoping increased R&D funding for specific projects will boost the sector.

Here is how the funding shapes up for Colorado-based organizations:

• Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration: $4.6 million to collect and analyze information to evaluate the performance of ground-source heat pump systems.

• Colorado Northwestern Community College in Rangely: $430,000 to retrofit a number of campus buildings to provide heating and cooling capacity.

• Colorado School of Mines: $1.19 million to create a large-scale simulation model that can include more factors involved in geothermal drilling than do the existing models.

• Colorado School of Mines: $860,597 to create and validate an model that includes how fluids might act if injected into a well drilled into hot rock.

• Colorado School of Mines: $245,797 to create a “Geothermal Academy,” with a data and analysis clearinghouse for ground-source heat projects.

• Composite Technology Development Inc. of Lafayette: $954,546 to shape materials used in geothermal wells. Also, $557,150 to develop and demonstrate a new class of circuit boards that can withstand high temperatures and operate reliably in wells drilled into hot rocks.

• Denver Museum of Nature and Science: $2.61 million to demonstrate the use of municipal wastewater as the heat-exchange medium for a heating/cooling system.

• Flint Geothermal LLC of Denver: $4.78 million to use a combination of geological mapping tools to identify geothermal resources in Colorado.

• Power Environmental and Energy Research Institute of Nathrop: $1.84 million to develop a model to compare fluids used to help visualize reservoirs of geothermal heat.

• William Lettis & Associates Inc. of Denver (and Virginia): $708,000 to use seismic data to image the physical properties of geothermal reservoirs.

The DOE said state and private funds will give another $353 million to those projects.

“Geothermal energy is a vast, and still largely untapped, resource that diversifies our supplies and builds energy security for Colorado and the country,” Gov. Bill Ritter said in a news release congratulating grant recipients in Colorado.