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Creates a Department of Energy milestone-based Geothermal Demonstration Program to finance and accelerate commercialization of next‑generation geothermal technologies, with a focus on low‑permeability and impermeable reservoirs and on expanding projects into regions with little or no existing geothermal generation. The Secretary must set up the program within 180 days, run a competitive, milestone-driven award process that prioritizes projects that produce public resource data, can reach commercial scale (about 30 MW), attract private investment, and distribute awards to at least three proposals across three States and three different sponsors. The Act authorizes such sums as necessary to implement the amendments.
The bill accelerates commercial-scale geothermal deployment and data sharing to bring clean power, jobs, and reduced development risk—especially to rural and tribal areas—but increases federal spending risk, may sideline smaller innovators, and could divert limited demonstration funds from other clean-energy priorities.
Utilities, energy companies, and nearby communities (including rural and tribal areas) gain access to milestone-based federal financing to develop commercial-scale geothermal projects, helping bring new local clean power generation and jobs.
Developers, researchers, and state partners will get more publicly available exploration, drilling, and technology data, lowering information costs and reducing development risk for future geothermal projects.
The program prioritizes support for areas with little or no existing geothermal generation — including projects on or near Indian land — helping attract clean energy investment to underserved communities.
Taxpayers could bear substantial costs if high-upfront exploration and drilling subsidies fund projects that fail to commercialize, and the bill's 'such sums as are necessary' authorization creates uncertainty about total federal spending.
Targeted funding for geothermal demonstrations may divert limited federal clean-energy demonstration resources away from other technologies that could also deliver emissions reductions or grid benefits.
Public release of geological and drilling data could raise local land-use, permitting, or community concerns without guaranteeing that those communities receive direct benefits.
Introduced March 17, 2026 by John Wright Hickenlooper · Last progress March 17, 2026