The US Department of Energy is deploying $171.5 million to accelerate geothermal commercialization, structured around next-generation geothermal field-scale tests for electricity generation and drilling programs.
The DOE tied the program directly to President Donald Trump’s order, Unleashing American Energy, in which, while geothermal is not specified, it enacts energy exploration and production to “solidify the United States as a global energy leader long into the future.”
The funding is not being opened all at once. The opportunity includes six total topic areas with varying funding levels and anticipated awards, but only two of those six topics are open in the first application round.
Rather than broadly dispersing capital, DOE is concentrating the first tranche on the two highest-leverage bottlenecks in geothermal deployment: proving advanced geothermal systems at operating scale and reducing subsurface uncertainty before larger capital is committed.
DOE says the US currently leads the world in geothermal electricity capacity, but that leadership still amounts to only about four gigawatts. Against that, DOE analysis points to at least 300 gigawatts of reliable and flexible geothermal power potential on the US grid by 2050.
Letters of intent are due March 27, 2026, and full applications are due April 30, 2026.
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