US DOE announces winners of 2023 Geothermal Collegiate Competition
The Geothermal Collegiate Competition by the U.S. Department of Energy (source: US DOE)
Carlo Cariaga
16 Feb 2024
Teams from the University of Oklahoma and Columbia and Princeton Universities took top prizes in the 2023 Geothermal Collegiate Competition of the US DOE.
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded teams from the University of Oklahoma, Columbia University, and Princeton University as first-place winners of the 2023 Geothermal Collegiate Competition. Each of the two first-place teams will receive a USD 10,000 cash prize and funding to host a community event where they will present their projects and discuss geothermal.
The Geothermal Collegiate Competition is an annual challenge that offers college students experience in the renewable energy industry and the chance to win cash prizes for developing real-world geothermal solutions. The 2023 competition featured two tracks – the Technical Track and the Policy Track.
Technical Track teams designed a geothermal heating and cooling system from the ground up for a proposed community of their choice. Teams in the Policy Track, which was offered for the first time this year, conducted an analysis of the regulatory environment and economic feasibility for a proposed geothermal system.
The first-place projects are:
- Team GeoTribe from The University of Oklahoma won the Technical Track for designing a system of geothermal wells to heat and cool the Osage Nation’s 40,000-square-foot greenhouse, supporting efforts for native food sovereignty in Pawhuska, Oklahoma. The greenhouse was established during the COVID-19 pandemic when there was a breakdown in the Tribe’s food system. The proposed geothermal system design would help alleviate the challenge of maintaining a constant year-round growing temperature.
- Aurora Geothermal Solutions from Columbia and Princeton Universities, partnering with the Native Village of Elim, won the Policy Track for a project that explores geothermal options for the 330-person Alaskan town. The team’s economic analysis of their proposed ocean-based closed-loop geothermal heating and cooling system found that system costs could be recouped in as little as 14 years, advancing clean energy in a manner consistent with the Inupiat way of living from the land and saving residents more than 2.3 million gallons of fuel oil and 70 million pounds of wood over 30 years.
Second place teams will receive a $6,000 cash prize.
The second-place projects are:
- Kyle White’s Team from the University of Tulsa took second place in the Technical Track for designing a system to bring geothermal to the Lorton Performance Center—a musical and performance arts hub that currently accounts for 6% of the university’s heating and cooling costs—by using horizontal piping installed under a nearby athletic field.
- Davidson Lab’s Team from the University of California San Diego took second-place position in the Policy Track with a proposal to use federal incentives to revitalize the Boise Cascade Mill—a brownfields site in Cascade, Idaho—with a geothermal system that could meet an 8.6-GWh annual energy demand for over 2,800 residents while creating nearly 100 local jobs.
EERE’s Geothermal Technologies Office has funded the Geothermal Collegiate Competition 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. The GCC is now a part of DOE’s American-Made collection of prizes and competitions.
“These teams did a tremendous job looking at ways geothermal energy can serve their communities with clean, reliable heating and cooling—24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” said Jeff Marootian, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “We’re always impressed by the caliber of projects brought to this competition. Seeing such ingenuity in action gives us an exciting glimpse at the possibilities ahead as these students help us shape our clean energy future.”
“We are excited to support these teams as they plan their community events, providing a real-world, hands-on learning experience while students are still in school,” said Elisabet Metcalfe, Communications and Stakeholder Engagement Lead for the Geothermal Technologies Office. “Part of any new geothermal development is engaging with the local community, so this is a key part of this year’s competition.”
Source: US Department of Energy
