211-1 Geothermal Resource Mapping and Energy Supply Through Integrated Techno-Economic Modeling

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Geothermal energy is uniquely suited to help meet the growing U.S. demand for electricity, heating, and cooling. Harnessing its full potential requires mapping and quantifying a wide range of resource types (e.g., shallow, hydrothermal, hot dry rock, superhot), applications (e.g., power, heating, cooling, mineral extraction, storage), and technologies (conventional, enhanced geothermal, closed loop, underground storage). The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is at the forefront of developing and deploying advanced geospatial and techno-economic modeling tools to accelerate geothermal exploration and development nationwide. These nationwide efforts include thermal Earth modeling and uncertainty quantification using physics-informed graph neural networks, 3D play fairway analysis and value of information modeling to de-risk geothermal exploration in magmatic systems, machine learning-assisted regional resource assessments in the Great Basin, favorability mapping of low-temperature resources in the Denver Basin, Alaska data gap analysis and state-wide subsurface thermal modeling, techno-economic analysis of hydrothermal and next-generation systems using the Renewable Energy Potential (reV) model, and exploring the potential role of geothermal distributed energy resources in meeting thermal energy demand using the Distributed Geothermal Energy Simulation Tool (dGeo). With support from the DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO), NREL is also democratizing access to modeling results and methods through the Geothermal Energy Atlas (GEA), a new, freely accessible web application designed to advance geothermal deployment by making complex geothermal geospatial data discoverable, understandable, and actionable.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-6470

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