Spearheaded by the Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) within the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy, and in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), the Geophone Prize spurs creativity and addresses the challenges of operating seismic sensors in geothermal environments.
The American-Made High Temperature Geothermal Geophone Prize is designed to catalyze the development of high temperature, downhole capable seismic monitoring for enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) in the American instrumentation community. This is accomplished through a series of prize competitions and the development of a diverse and powerful support network that leverages national laboratories, energy incubators, and other resources from across the United States.
90 Gigawatts by 2050:
The Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) is focused on advancing EGS technology because it has the potential to enable the development of 90 gigawatts of projected geothermal electricity capacity by 2050 (as highlighted in theGeoVision: Harnessing the Heat Beneath Our Feet report.) Achieving this level of deployment require technical innovations in EGS, however. One of the critical areas centers around advances in subsurface sensing, which requires the expertise of the high temperature electronics (HTE) community. Growth in HTE applications across multiple sectors has been significant in the last decade and is ripe for adaptation to the seismic sensor technology space.
Earn Cash Prizes for Development of Successful Geophone:
The Geophone Prize comprises three progressive competitions that catalyze innovation in the U.S. geothermal industry by harnessing the advances HTE can provide in tool design and functionality. This new initiative not only provides cash prizes, but also engages America’s incubators, investors, universities, 17 national laboratories, and others to help participants achieve their goals.
Figure 1. The Geothermal Geophone Prize offers three escalating rounds and substantial cash and other benefits to spark innovation in high temperature seismic sensors.
Competitors in the Phase 1: Concept! , Phase 2: Design!, and Phase 3: Build! Contests participate in three escalating challenges. The contests provide a total of $3.65 million in incentives—$2.55 million in cash prizes, $1.1 million in vouchers. Winning Phase 2: Design! is required to compete in Phase 3: Build!; however, new teams may join during Phase 2: Design! without competing in Phase 1: Concept!.
Guidelines
Please review the official rules for the complete application process and instructions for competing.
If you want to subscribe to updates on the prize or have any questions, you may use the contact feature on the HeroX platform, or message us directly.
Congratulations to the five Geophone Prize finalist teams, each winning $250,000 in cash prizes and $100,000 in vouchers to use with an industry expert or national laboratory to advance their seismometer prototypes. For each team chosen to advance to the final phase, please check your email for next steps and register for the Phase 3 Informational Webinar.
Congratulations to the following finalists who are fast-tracking innovative geophone solutions!
Complete your submission package on HeroX before 5 p.m. ET this Thursday, February 1.
This is the second contest of the Geothermal Geophone Prize’s three-contest series and offers a total of $1.25 million in cash prizes, as well as $500,000 in vouchers. Phase 1 winners and new competitors will advance their seismic sensor concepts and expand their partnerships to build functional prototypes.
If you have questions, please reach out to the prize administrators: and give yourself some extra time before 5 p.m. to hit submit!
The Geothermal Geophone Prize Phase 2 applications are due Thursday, Feb. 1 by 5 p.m. ET. Don’t miss your chance to win up to $350,000 in incentives and advance your seismic sensor concept by demonstrating your design’s promise.
The deadline for Geothermal Geophone Prize phase 2 submissions has been extended until Feb. 1, 2024. The updated rules that reflect this extension can be found on the resources tab within the prize’s HeroX page. Please reach out to geophoneprize@nrel.gov with any questions.
This document includes national laboratory voucher capabilities for the Geothermal Geophone Prize. Vouchers can be redeemed, should you win Phase 2.
Please note that, as a competitor, you will need to submit a Voucher Slide with your Phase 2 submission, which outlines where you would intend to redeem your voucher and what you would intend to do with it (see page 23 of the Official Rules for more information).
Please also review the Voucher Guidelines to learn more about the voucher process.
Yes, but it’s quick and easy. Just click the “Solve this Challenge” button on this page and follow the instructions to complete your registration. All you need to provide is your name and email address.
If you have a question not answered in the FAQ, we recommend that you post it in the Forum where someone will respond to you. This way, others who may have the same question will be able to see it.
Innovation is about making ideas happen. The American-Made Network will accelerate and sustain innovation through a diverse and powerful network that includes national laboratories, energy incubators, facilities, and other valuable industry partners from across the U.S. who will engage, connect, mentor, and boost the efforts of AMC competitors.
Connectors are the core component of the American-Made Network and are organizations that seek to support the efforts of competitors in AMC Challenges. Use this link to explore the Network to find potential partners and develop relationships.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is the Prize Administrator for the American-Made Challenges. In this capacity NREL works closely with the U.S. Department of Energy to administer the challenges, maintain the website platform, assist in building the network, and pay prize money to the winning teams.
All of your files are uploaded as part of the submission form, access this by clicking the Begin Entry button. The submission form contains an upload option for each of the required file entries. Only PDF files will be accepted for upload.
Competitors competing in American Made Challenges retain their own intellectual property. DOE has no intention of gaining rights to any underlying inventions discussed in your submission materials or that you may develop in furtherance of competing in this prize.
The recording of this webinar will be available online?
Yes, the recording to the May 19, Geothermal Geophone Informational Webinar for Phase 1 can be found under updates on the HeroX page.
Is American-Made a government entity, a non-profit, or a private company?
American-Made is a program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and administered by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
How do you prevent conflict of interest in reviewers?
Expert Reviewers are not allowed to have a financial or familial connections with applicants. Expert Reviewers are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA). Expert Reviewers are required to identify any conflicts of interest with their review assignments and report those to the Prize Administrator.
Does the government receive special rights to the IP developed in this process?
No, the government does not receive special rights to the IP developed under this prize.
However, if you elect to use your voucher at a national laboratory, you will be required to enter into a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA), and with this, any IP developed jointly under the voucher work may have special circumstances. Before teams agree to work in collaboration with a national laboratory, they will be able to review all language in the contract. The Geothermal Geophone Prize Rules also is a good reference.
A graphic that contains multiple images in one photo if that counts as one image or multiple?
This would count as one image, but please use your discretion with which images are the more supportive in representing your innovation.
Is the prize limited to just Geophone sensor-based solution submissions or can other sensor technologies be submitted like MEMS based seismic acquisition solutions that meet the requirements?
We are allowing for all sensor solution that your team wants to create, as long as it can meet the requirements laid out in the rules; Whether that is a Geophone, MEMS system, fiber optics or another solution.
How do we go from phase 1 to phase 2? Is there a separate application process?
There are two ways to participate in phase 2.
Either applicants participate in phase 1, are a winning team in phase 1, and then can participate in phase 2 or teams can choose to apply for phase 2 and not participate in phase 1.
What precautions have you taken to protect against discrimination in the review process?
The Department of Energy and Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy take allegations of discrimination seriously. If you have any specific allegations of instances of discrimination we encourage you to report them to the Department of Energy Office of Civil Rights.
The Department of Energy is required to comply with Section 188 of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of nationality. We do our very best to ensure that outside reviews are based on technical merit alone.
Can affiliates of National Labs compete?
Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory employees cannot compete in this prize. Federal employees are also not eligible to compete. Please review the Geothermal Geophone Prize Rules for a full list of eligibility requirements.
Can American-Made or associated connectors provide any help on researching what sort of high temp Geophone connectors already exist or what designs would be considered redundant?/Are there good references to read on current state technology?
Helpful Resources on Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS):
Is a change of affiliation allowed between phase 1 and phase 2?
We require the team captain remains the same between phase 1 and phase 2 and the entity tied to the team captain. If there needs to be a case-by-case exception made, the Prize Administrator can review the case. Please review the Geothermal Geophone Rules under the Resources tab on HeroX for more details.
Is there an interest in methods that keep current type sensors cool as a means of making them work at the higher temperatures?
Yes, as long as they can function at the time durations that were noted on the specifications table. The specifications table can be found in the Informational Webinar Power Point Slides as well as the Rules document.
There are three specific challenges with current technology: 1) the transducer itself, 2) The fidelity and robustness of the signal connection down hole, and 3) due to high frequencies and long transmission distances, these signals are almost always transmitted digitally. The A/D conversion is particularly temperature dependent. Are all three of these aspects required to be solved in a proposed solution?
Ideally a successful applicant will have a solution to all three for these challenges. If a team has a viable solution to one or two of these solutions, we highly encourage the team to new partners who can solve the other solutions.
For help with finding new partners please connect with the Power Connector on this prize, Clean Energy Business Network at
Q: Is NREL only interested in solutions to the prize that meet ALL minimum specifications, or will they also consider solutions that meet most?
A: It must meet the temperature requirements, and three component capability. With the other specs depends on how far it falls short of dynamic range, noise floor, band width, and the other specs , we have specified in the minimum requirements.
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Q: Can you help clarify how you are measuring/assessing the dynamic range of the tool?
A: We define the dynamic as the ratio of the amplitude of the "loudest" possible undistorted signal to the noise floor, say of a microphone or loudspeaker.[18] Dynamic range is therefore the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for the case where the signal is the loudest possible for the system. For example, if the ceiling of a device is 5 V (rms) and the noise floor is 10 µV (rms) then the dynamic range is 500000:1, or 114 dB:
In digital audio theory the dynamic range is limited by quantization error. The maximum achievable dynamic range for a digital audio system with Q-bit uniform quantization is calculated as the ratio of the largest sine-wave rms to rms noise is:[19]
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Q: Can you specify a maximum acceleration that the tool might encounter? For calculation of the dynamic range, we need to know the maximum acceleration to be measured.
A: Depending of the frequency of the signal the max acceleration will be at low frequencies (seconds) to high frequencies ( kilo hertz) less than 1 g to 10;s of g
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Q: In the Geothermal Seismic 101 webinar (February 2023) the comment was made that it would be better to have high frequency signals. Can you advise which frequency range is MOST critical?
