US DOE and NREL kick off 2023 Geothermal Collegiate Competition

Thirty-three teams from 25 U.S. collegiate institutions are competing in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Fall 2023 Geothermal Collegiate Competition, designing real-world geothermal solutions for a chance at $32,000 in prize funding.

This year’s challenge, now part of the American-Made collection of prizes and competitions, features two tracks:

• Twenty-one teams are registered for the Technical Track, in which teams will design a geothermal heating and cooling system from the ground up for a proposed community of their choosing.
• Twelve teams are registered in the new Policy Track, where teams will conduct an analysis of the regulatory environment and economic feasibility for a proposed geothermal system.
• First-place teams in each track will receive $10,000, with second-place teams earning $6,000.

The participating institutions are as follows:

Technical Track

• Aims Community College
• California State University, Bakersfield
• Colorado School of Mines*
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Missouri University of Science and Technology
• Norwich University*
• Smith College
• Texas A&M University*
• The Pennsylvania State University
• The University of Oklahoma*
• The University of Tulsa
• University of Wisconsin–Madison
• West Virginia University

*Collegiate institution with multiple teams competing

Policy Track

• Columbia University and Princeton University
• Duke University
• Grand Valley State University and University of Michigan
• SUNY Oneonta, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, and Russell Sage College
• The University of Oklahoma
• The University of Tulsa*
• University of California, Berkeley
• University of California, Davis
• University of California San Diego
• University of Colorado Boulder

*Collegiate institution with multiple teams competing

“We are thrilled to see so many teams and schools in this year’s competition and can’t wait to see what the teams come up with in both tracks to help address the climate crisis and empower communities to use geothermal,” said Elisabet Metcalfe, communications and stakeholder engagement lead at the DOE Geothermal Technologies Office.

Nineteen teams also took advantage of the option to be paired with a volunteer mentor, gaining valuable connections to learn more about the geothermal industry.

Teams will submit final deliverables, including stakeholder engagement plans for both tracks, in December, and winners are expected to be announced in January 2024. DOE will also provide additional funding to the winning teams to host stakeholder events in the communities in which their projects took place.

The Geothermal Technologies Office has funded the GCC for more than 10 years, supporting workforce development and giving students a chance to gain resume experience in the geothermal industry while still in school.

Last year’s Geothermal Collegiate Competition was won by the Sooners Geothermal Team from the University of Oklahoma (OU). The winning project was for a system that allows abandoned oil and gas wells in Shawnee, Oklahoma to be repurposed to supply geothermal energy.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy

Carlo Cariaga

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