Google pours nearly $11 million into geothermal power

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 20 August 2008 06:53

Science - Energy

The Google.org money is going to two companies and a university.

AltaRock Energy will receive a $US6.25 million investment to develop innovative technologies to achieve significant cost reductions and improved performance in EGS projects.

Potter Drilling will receive a $US4 million investment to develop new approaches to lower the cost and expand the range of deep hard rock drilling. The funds will be provided in two tranches.

Southern Methodist University Geothermal Lab will be the beneficiary of a $US489,521 grant to improve understanding of the size and distribution of geothermal energy resources and to update geothermal mapping of North America.

Together, these activities cover locating geothermal resources, reaching them, and then extracting the energy.

"We're big believers in EGS and we're looking for more opportunities," said Reicher.