National Geothermal Data System

The goal of the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Geothermal Data System is to design, build, implement, deploy and populate a national, sustainable, distributed, interoperable network of data and service (application) providers. These providers will develop, collect, serve, and maintain geothermal-relevant data that operates as an integral component of NGDS. As a result the geothermal industry, the public, and policy makers will have access to consistent and reliable data, which in turn, reduces the amount of staff time devoted to finding, retrieving, integrating, and verifying information. With easier access to information, the high cost and risk of geothermal power projects (especially exploration drilling) is reduced.

Five separate NGDS projects provide the data support, acquisition, and access to cyber infrastructure necessary to reduce cost and risk of the nation’s geothermal energy strategy and US DOE program goals focused on the production and utilization of geothermal energy. The U.S DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Geothermal Technologies Program is developing the knowledge and data foundation necessary for discovery and development of large-scale energy production while the Buildings Technology Program is focused on other practical applications such as direct use and residential/commercial ground source heat pumps. The NGDS provides expanded reference and resource data for research and development activities (a subset of the US DOE goals) and includes data from across all fifty states and the nation’s leading academic geothermal centers. Thus, the project incorporates not only high-temperature potential but also moderate and low-temperature locations incorporating US DOE’s goal of adding more geothermal electricity to the grid. The program, through its development of data integration cyberinfrastructure, will help lead to innovative exploration technologies through increased data availability on geothermal energy capacity. Finally, the project will contribute new data from previously unexplored locations. NGDS is being built using the US Geoscience Information Network (US GIN) data integration framework to promote interoperability across the Earth sciences community and with other emerging data integration and networking efforts.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90142 © 2012 AAPG Annual Convention and Exhibition, April 22-25, 2012, Long Beach, California