The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) announces the selection of six projects to continue with Phase II Play Fairway Analysis (PFA) activities. The GTO will award $4.1 million additional funding to six of the eleven projects from the 2014 PFA Funding Opportunity.
The concept of PFA is being used to identify prospective geothermal resources in areas with no obvious surface expression by mapping the most favorable intersections of heat, permeability, and fluid. Finding more effective exploration methods will address a major barrier to increased geothermal energy production by lowering the high upfront risk and cost of project development. By improving success rates for exploration drilling, this data-mapping tool will help attract investment in geothermal energy projects and significantly lower the costs of geothermal energy. PFA Phase II moves the projects from desktop analysis to collecting new geochemical, geophysical, and geological data in the field, with the ultimate goal of identifying drilling targets for Phase III. The projects selected for additional funding will continue to address the overarching theme of uncertainty quantification and reduction.