On Wednesday, March 31, the U.S. Department of Energy announced 10 semifinalist teams in the American-Made Geothermal Manufacturing Prize at the NextGen Geo event. Each team won $100,000 in cash prizes and $75,000 in technical support vouchers. These teams will now move on to the Make! Contest, where they’ll create a prototype and compete for part of the $750,000 prize pool. 

Congratulations to the Geothermal Prize semifinalists: 

  • Drilling:
    • The Bit Guys from Morgantown, WV
    • Team Ozark Integrated Circuits from Fayetteville, AR
    • Team AC from Cambridge, MA
  • Zonal Isolation: 
    • Team Baker Hughes from Houston, TX
    • Team Welltec from Katy, TX
    • Team Downhole Emerging Technologies from Houston, TX
    • Team Schlumberger (Huilin Tu) from Houston, TX
  • Logging and Production: 
    • Team PLUGS from Morgantown, WV
    • Team Ultra-High Temperature Logging Tool from Houston, TX
    • Team Multiscale Systems from Worcester, MA

You can view a recording of the NextGen Geo event here.

A new prize competition called the American-Made Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize was also announced during the NextGen Geo event. This $3 million prize is designed to find solutions that de-risk and increase market viability for direct lithium extraction from geothermal brines.

Anyone affiliated with a U.S. academic institution, individually or as a team, is invited to participate in the Geothermal Lithium Extraction Prize. Learn more about competing at the informational webinar on Monday, April 12. Register here

Congratulations, again, to the Geothermal Manufacturing Prize semifinalists and good luck in Make!