U.S. Department of Energy and National Science Foundation Announce Second Intern Cohort to Support Growth of the Geothermal Energy Workforce

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) today announced the second cohort of geothermal interns in the NSF INTERN program. Through this collaboration-the second activity coordinated under the NSF-DOE Memorandum of Understanding-a diverse group of 24 students will work with geothermal companies, national laboratories, or state agencies on projects that advance geothermal technologies. Work conducted under this internship program will support the goals of DOE's Enhanced Geothermal Shot™, which aims to bring enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) to Americans nationwide and reduce the cost of EGS by 90% by 2035 and will also advance low-temperature geothermal applications like district-scale heating and cooling.

"Geothermal offers enormous potential to transform our energy landscape, so we are excited to support these students as they explore careers in this growing industry that will need their skills and expertise," said Jeff Marootian, principal deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy at DOE. "Partnering with the National Science Foundation to prepare the next generation of geothermal scientists and engineers is a smart and valuable investment in our nation that will yield meaningful returns for decades to come."

"The NSF INTERN program offers invaluable on-the-job training and professional development for science and engineering graduate students, and, through this partnership with DOE, more U.S. students will be prepared to advance geothermal technologies and our clean energy future," said Dr. Susan Margulies, NSF assistant director for engineering.

The students selected for this second Geothermal INTERN cohort represent 17 colleges and universities nationwide, including two Hispanic-Serving Institutions and four affiliated with NSF's Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) program, as well as an array of ethnic or cultural backgrounds and academic disciplines. INTERN participants are supported through supplements to current NSF awards.

Established in 2017, the NSF INTERN program provides non-academic research internships for close to 300 graduate students per year. These internships can be up to six-months long and provide graduate students with the opportunity to acquire core professional competencies and skills in a wide range of sectors in the U.S. economy. The NSF INTERN program encourages the participation of graduate students from groups that are underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. With joint support from DOE and NSF, the Geothermal INTERN opportunity is expected to support additional students in fiscal year 2025.

The awarded institutions and participants' host organizations and projects are:

• California Institute of Technology: This student will work with Schlumberger-Doll Research to investigate how modeling tools for induced seismicity forecasting can be interfaced with software solutions for applications in geothermal reservoirs.
• Central Michigan University: This student will work with Geologica Geothermal Group, Inc. in collaboration with Contact Energy on modeling of geothermal reservoir for data generation and the design of a machine learning model using synthetic data from physics-based models to train, validate, and test scenarios.
• Colorado School of Mines: One student will work with Cyrq Energy on geothermal scaling at California's Salton Sea geothermal operation by sampling the scales at different locations within the Hudson Ranch power plant. A second student will work with Coso Operating Company to study the occurrence of silica scaling at the Coso geothermal field by sampling silica scales at various locations at the site and conduct petrographic analyses on thin sections. A third student will work with Coso Operating Company to acquire hyperspectral data on drill core and core chips from California and will study the distribution of alteration minerals in the subsurface of this geothermal system, helping to identify the location of the steam vent at this large geothermal system.
• Florida State University: Hosted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, this student will develop capabilities in GEOS, an open-source simulation framework, and test simulations using the host organization's high-performance computing resources.
• Georgia Institute of Technology: Oak Ridge National Laboratory will host a student involved in SMART (Science-informed Machine Learning for Accelerating Real-Time Decisions in Carbon Storage Applications), which aims to transform interactions between subsurface data. SMART also focuses on the development of machine learning tools for rapid and accurate processing of large amounts of seismic data.
• Northwestern University:Two students will work with Illinois State Geological Survey. One student willassist with mapping in the Chicago Metropolitan area through laboratory measurements on soil/sediment samples that will inform the simulations of thermophysical processes of subsurface environments. A second student will develop a detailed 3D geologic model of the subsurface under the Chicago Loop district to illustrate contribution of waste heat from buildings, establishing a baseline for conditions that are required to perform feasibility analysis for geothermal systems in cities.
• The Pennsylvania State University:This student will work with Geothermal Technologies Inc. and use modeling tools to maximize heat extraction and minimize cooldown of source rock.
• South Dakota School of Mines and Technology:Two students will work with RESPEC, a professional services company. One student will introduce sedimentary geothermal analysis workflows specifically tailored for geothermal resources, aiming to enhance and highlight economic feasibility of development scenarios. Another student will explore optimization techniques to enhance the efficiency of Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) systems, including data analysis, a conceptual model of a typical BTES, and experimentation to identify optimization strategies that will increase the energy output of geothermal systems.
• Texas A&M University: This student will work with Fervo Energy on studying microseismic processing and stress inversion in southwest Utah. The student will be responsible for improving mechanisms of microseismic event data to better understand temporal stress variations in reservoir stimulation and production.
• University of Memphis: This student will work with Zanskar Geothermal & Minerals, Inc. to study statistical seismicity analysis of geothermal fields in California and Nevada, receiving training in how geothermal operations impact seismic hazards.
• University of Minnesota, Twin Cities: This student will work with Los Alamos National Laboratory to study modeling-based investigation into enhanced geothermal systems, using simulation tools to shed light on optimal fractured network and rock matrix properties.
• University of Mississippi: The student will work on a sensing project with Zanskar Geothermal & Minerals, Inc. furthering the development of new tools to analyze and interpret shallow-temperature probe data.
• University of Southern California:One student will work with GeothermEx to research the physical mechanisms that couple fluid flow, tracer transport, and geomechanics under specific field conditions. A second student will interact with researchersat Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, co-mentored by Quaise Energy, to learn about geothermal simulation tools and contribute to an understanding of the mechanisms that may dominate heat extraction from high-temperature geothermal systems.
• University of Texas, El Paso: This student will work with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to use fracture imaging, coda waves of earthquakes, and seismological data observed at the Cape Modern Geothermal Field in Utah to contribute to understanding of fluid flow.
• University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley: This student will work with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to study neutron imaging technologies and learn how to analyze and use imaging capabilities to solve problems related to geothermal research. The student will also participate in the commissioning of the VENUS beamline.
• University of Utah: One student will work with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to observe seismological data in Utah through earthquake characterization using machine learning that will record induced seismicity and estimate reservoir properties using a variety of inputs. Another student will work with Utah Geological Survey to refine existing workflows to improve geothermal resource assessment in deep sedimentary basins in Utah. A third student will work with Zanskar Geothermal & Minerals Inc. to obtain a high-resolution shallow crustal shear wave velocity model for the southwest region of Utah, which will serve as a starting point for evaluating the geothermal energy capacity, production, and industrialization of the region.
• West Virginia University: This student will work with West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey to characterize the utility of flooded mine pools for geothermal district heating and cooling applications through sampling both in the field and core repository.

More information about the Geothermal INTERN opportunity is available on GTO's INTERN webpage and on NSF's website.