Four Western US states form consortium to streamline geothermal development
San Luis Valley, Southern Colorado, U.S. (source: flickr/ Jesse Varner, creative commons)
Carlo Cariaga
21 May 2026
Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico have formed the Mountain West Geothermal Consortium to streamline and coordinate efforts on geothermal development.
The four states of Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico in the western United States have announced the creation of the new Mountain West Geothermal Consortium. The consortium will bring together state officials from the four member states to provide coordinated insights, share resources, and jointly create tools and mechanisms to de-risk investment in geothermal and accelerate geothermal development.
The consortium was announced by Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis during the recent Western Governor’s Association “energy superabundance” workshop where updates on geothermal projects in the region were discussed. The Mountain West Geothermal Consortium is led by experts in geothermal technology development and public finance at Washington, DC-based nonprofits Center for Public Enterprise and Constructive.
According to a fact sheet released by the consortium, it has set a 2026 goal to “build and socialize high-impact, low-burden interventions to advance region-wide geothermal investment, procurement, and regulation.”
Michael O’Connor, the director of the Mountain West Geothermal Consortium, further added that they are helping to facilitate conversations between developers and local utility companies and helping state energy officials build programs based on new innovation being brought to the geothermal market.
Of the four member states, only Utah and New Mexico currently have operating geothermal power plants, totaling about 90 MW of installed capacity. However, all four states have shown a strong commitment to building their respective geothermal sectors.
- Colorado has released several grants for geothermal research, heating and cooling projects, and the repurposing of abandoned oil and gas wells for geothermal.
- Arizona had recently announced an investment of $1 million for geothermal research.
- New Mexico has passed legislation on the repurposing of oil and gas wells for geothermal, as well as for easing of regulatory requirements for geothermal projects in state trust lands.
- Utah is famously the site of the Cape Station project by Fervo Energy, which is expected to build the first commercial-scale Enhanced Geothermal System. A second high-temperature geothermal site, called Project Blanford, had also been identified by Fervo in Utah.
Source: Deseret News and Utah News Dispatch
