Geothermal Research Bill Pours $750 Million Into Next-Gen Drilling Tech, Opens Fossil Fuel Data to the Public

The Next-Generation Geothermal Research and Development Act puts $150 million per year on the table from 2027 through 2031 to push geothermal energy beyond traditional hot springs and into technologies that could tap heat almost anywhere underground. The bill rewrites existing federal geothermal programs to focus on closed-loop systems, supercritical geothermal (think: rock so hot it's under extreme pressure), and machine-learning-powered exploration—while requiring fossil fuel and mining companies to share their subsurface data with the public.

Drilling Deeper Than Ever

Here's the core shift: the bill expands the definition of geothermal energy to include three technologies that don't need naturally occurring underground water reservoirs. Closed-loop geothermal systems circulate fluid through a sealed wellbore, picking up heat through the pipe walls without ever touching the surrounding rock. Supercritical geothermal targets rock at temperatures and pressures so extreme that water exists in a state between liquid and gas—potentially delivering five to ten times the energy of conventional geothermal wells per drop of fluid. Next-generation systems is the umbrella term covering both, plus enhanced geothermal and other innovations.

Why does this matter for someone who isn't a geologist? Because traditional geothermal only works in places like Iceland or parts of Nevada where hot water naturally pools underground. Closed-loop and supercritical systems could theoretically work in far more locations—including, eventually, under cities or industrial zones where the geology was never right for old-school geothermal.

The Fossil Fuel Data Pipeline

One of the bill's most practical provisions: it requires the Department of Energy's subsurface data repository to start ingesting "publicly available subsurface data from fossil fuel and mining operations." Translation: decades of geological surveys, drilling logs, and rock analysis that oil, gas, and mining companies have collected will now feed into a public database that geothermal developers can use.

The bill also mandates a memorandum of understanding between the Secretaries of Energy and Interior to share geothermal development data from federally funded projects—heat profiles, seismic readings, rock types (lithology), and maps of protected areas. The Interior Secretary can even commission drilling of "supercritical geothermal exploration boreholes in representative geological provinces," with all resulting data going public.

For a geothermal startup trying to figure out where to drill, this is like getting handed a stack of treasure maps that previously sat locked in filing cabinets.

A Center of Excellence and Real Money for Commercialization

The bill creates a competitive grant process for a Geothermal Center of Excellence—run by National Laboratories, universities, or public-private partnerships—to coordinate research across FORGE sites (Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy). Within one year, at least one FORGE site must be equipped to test next-generation systems, including closed-loop setups under supercritical conditions when technically feasible.

There's also a commercial-ready innovation grant program targeting technologies close to market: hardrock drilling equipment, reservoir characterization tools, fiber optic sensing for data acquisition. The federal government will cover up to 80% of project costs. Priority goes to applicants with actual field development experience and projects that can advance near-term deployment across diverse geological conditions.

What Gets Measured: Water, Territory, and Progress

The bill includes several accountability mechanisms worth noting:

• Water use report due within five years: The Secretary of Energy must report to Congress on how much water next-generation geothermal systems consume per megawatt-hour compared to other power sources, and whether these systems can run on brackish or nonpotable water instead of fresh water.

• Quadrennial resource assessments: The U.S. Geological Survey must update the national geothermal resource assessment every four years—and for the first time, must evaluate territories including American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands for supercritical geothermal potential. The first update is due within two years.

• Biennial progress reports to Congress: Starting one year after enactment, the Energy Secretary must report on the maximum potential of U.S. geothermal resources, project results, and barriers to commercialization.

The Fine Print

The $150 million annual authorization runs through 2031 and is drawn from funds otherwise authorized for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy—so this isn't new money so much as redirected money within the existing DOE budget.

Some discretion rests with the Secretary of Energy, who can determine "other topics" for research focus and include "any other information the Secretary considers appropriate" in progress reports. The "maximum extent practicable" qualifier on data sharing and territorial assessments gives agencies flexibility, though it could also limit how much data actually reaches the public domain.

For the fossil fuel and mining industries, the subsurface data sharing requirement means information collected through private operations may become accessible to competitors in the geothermal space—though the bill specifies "publicly available" data, which should exclude proprietary information.

The bottom line: this is a research infrastructure bill dressed in geothermal clothing. It builds data pipelines, funds testing facilities, and sets up the institutional scaffolding for a geothermal industry that doesn't yet exist at commercial scale. Whether the technology delivers on its promise will depend on what comes out of those FORGE sites and exploration boreholes over the next five years.