FORGE geothermal project gets significant infusion for infrastructure development in form of state 'economic opportunity grant' money
By Brice Wallace
The Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) is pitching in funds to advance a geothermal energy research-and-development project in Beaver County.
The GOED board, at its July meeting, approved an “economic opportunity grant” from the Industrial Assistance Fund to help pay for infrastructure related to the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) project about 10 miles from Milford. FORGE is a multiyear laboratory project in which scientists and engineers will work to develop, test and accelerate breakthroughs in enhanced geothermal system technologies and techniques. GOED documents indicate the infrastructure will be an electricity transmission line.
In June, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that the Utah project would receive up to $140 million in continued funding over the next five years. The Utah site was chosen over others in California, Idaho, Nevada and Oregon to receive the funding for continued research and development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), or manmade geothermal reservoirs. The site is operated by the University of Utah, which has about two dozen industry, university, national laboratory and government partners.
The GOED funding is tied to the creation of 23 jobs with average annual pay of $94,000.
“This is such a tremendous opportunity for rural Utah,” said Ginger Chinn, managing director for urban and rural business services at GOED. “We’re so excited to see these high-paying jobs.”
Joseph Moore, a research professor at the University of Utah’s Energy and Geoscience Institute (EGI), told the GOED board that the project will involve drilling two wells, taking about three years. After the first is drilled, water will be pumped in to force underground rocks to crack. The second well will have cold water injected. The water will heat up in the rocks and be pumped to the surface, where its steam can be used to move a turbine and generate electricity.
“The point of FORGE is to build reservoirs that are not naturally there. They don’t have the permeability. They don’t have these cracks that allow the water to pass through,” Moore said, adding that the project goal is not to generate electricity but rather to prove the technology.
Since the late 1970s, he said, at least a dozen experiments like FORGE have been undertaken. “Not one is commercial,” Moore said. “And so DOE decided that they would take it on themselves to spend $150 million-plus — probably closer to $200 million when they’re done — and learn how to do it.”
If the technology and techniques to engineer manmade geothermal reservoirs can be demonstrated, they could be applied elsewhere to provide electricity generation. “Anywhere in the world can benefit from this,” Moore said.
Utah currently is third among states in geothermal energy production and has three geothermal plants, but Moore said the FORGE project could work to unleash even more output. “The possibility is enormous, at least for electricity,” he said. “We’re generating about 72 megawatts — 72,000 homes’ worth of electricity —[there’s] probably 1,300 megawatts available.”
Among other benefits of the FORGE project are that it will highlight the benefits of geothermal energy to the public; it will attract scientists to Utah from around the world; and it will provide revenue to local and state businesses, including those involved in construction, equipment and fuel purchases, motel bookings and purchases from local businesses.
Beaver County officials also said FORGE can put a stronger spotlight on the area’s already impressive renewable energy corridor, where a total of 736 megawatts is produced in geothermal fields, a biogas facility and large-scale solar and wind energy projects — all in a 50-mile stretch.