The DOE has announced plans to leverage oil and gas expertise to test reliability and efficiency of geothermal power generation at oil and gas fields under the Geothermal Technologies Program (GTP).

The Office of Fossil Energy and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy will join forces to test and validate geothermal power generation technology at the Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center (RMOTC) near Casper, WY.

The Geothermal Technologies Program is currently funding 17 projects featuring low temperature, co-produced and geopressurized resources in various geological conditions to enable online capacity of 3 gigawatts, the power for 2.4 million homes a year by 2020.

The Naval Petroleum Reserve where the RMOTC is located was the first in the world to use co-produced hot water to generate electricity in an operating oil field. Not only does the RMOTC boast traditional oil and gas testing, it also features field research into renewable technologies such as wind, solar, and low-temperature geothermal.

Projects like the Geothermal Technologies Program work to establish geothermal energy as a contributor to renewable energy efforts.

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