WASHINGTON — In April, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved a funding bill for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for fiscal year (FY) 2013. The legislation encourages DOE to provide no less than $10 million “to support research, development, and strategic deployment of geothermal heat pump (GHP) technology.”
The bill has since been approved. Following a request from DOE for industry input into how the funds might be spent, the GEO board of directors, staff, and selected industry members collaborated in late-July to present the following ideas.