2011 energy budget adds $55 M to GT investments

In Washington, the release of the fiscal year 2011 budget request aims to continue to modernize the country’s energy infrastructure with additional investments in a number of renewable sources and includes $55 million for geothermal. However, other than water – which is to receive $41 M, other renewables continue to draw more attention. The budget for solar in 2011 is $302 million; biomass, $220 M; hydrogen, $137 M and wind, $123 million. The 2011 request pales in comparison to the nearly $400 million doled out in 2009 but represents a 25% increase over the 2010 budget of $44 million. The budget describes the geothermal program’s mission as to conduct RD&D to establish Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) as a major contributor to baseload electricity generation. In addition, the program now calls for geophysical R&D and modeling efforts to address induced seismicity, water availability, and other potential associated lifecycle risks, and an increased effort on low temperature geothermal including fluids coproduced from oil and gas operations and fluids from geopressured resources. Additional funds of $5 M and $6 M will be requested for these efforts, respectively.