The Fast Lane: 3 Modern Inventions To Advance Geothermal Energy
Geothermal Energy Has Enormous Potential. These Licensable Technologies Could Help the Industry Drill Faster.
“The Fast Lane” series zooms in on some of the thousands of technologies born in the National Laboratory of the Rockies that companies can license. This iteration focuses on technologies that could help geothermal companies generate energy and profits.
In the 1880s, some settlers of Milford, Utah, lovingly dubbed their new home a “perfect mudhole” or the “perfection of isolation.” Today, visitors who step outside the city limits still see sweeps of wide brown swaths speckled with curlicue shrubs. But if they look closer, they might also see a hint of something powerful wafting from this perfect mudhole: steam.
Within all that isolation, the Earth harbors a great forge.
As of 2019, the U.S. Department of Energy has funded another kind of FORGE—the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy—built to investigate the newest, most advanced methods to generate energy from naturally occurring heat hidden beneath the Earth’s surface.
Geothermal energy accounts for just 0.4% of the United States’ total energy generation. But the industry’s potential is hot—like power every home in the United States hot. And that potential heats up if companies can drill faster, operate smoothly even in extreme environments, and cut production costs.
Luckily, experts at the National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) have also invented ways for geothermal developers, companies, and researchers to better evaluate and access the highest-grade geothermal resources underground. Two of those inventions are built to survive extreme environments beneath the Earth’s crust. A third could help communities and developers better understand a site’s long-term economic potential. And all three are ready for commercial use.
In fact, companies can peruse thousands of licensable inventions from U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories on the Lab Partnering Service website—and even get help applying them to their industry by partnering with a national laboratory, like NLR.
To get started, here are three of these inventions, all of which could help companies, communities, and the country profit from the Earth’s hottest commodity.
#1: How To Energize High-Power Drilling
Who could benefit: Companies using high-power drilling to forge geothermal wells or entities that operate nuclear facilities, mines, or the grid
What’s the goal: Drill faster, even at extreme depths
Why it matters: Geothermal resources located less than 3 miles below the Earth’s surface could generate about 42 terawatts of power over 20 years—that is more than double the energy demand of the entire planet. And, according to the 2025 U.S. Geothermal Market Report, that potential could rise to 57 terawatts of electricity generated in the continental United States if companies could access deeper depths. Potential profits could rise, too: The more concentrated the heat, the more power a geothermal plant could generate with the same equipment.
The challenge is going deep without going broke.
Even a few miles beneath the Earth’s crust, temperatures and pressures can damage electronics, hard, hot rock can eat at drill bits and stagnate progress, and cramped spaces can only accommodate compact devices.
But one NLR invention could make it faster and more economical to drill these modern geothermal wells. The high-temperature alternator—a device that transforms mechanical energy into electricity—can perform reliably in temperatures up to almost 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Today, most geothermal companies power their drill using circulating drilling fluid—or drilling mud, so named because it contains mud and oil or water. That drilling mud rotates a turbine or motor and then the drill bit, in turn. Some companies, however, have started using electricity to energize high-power drilling—as well as other downhole technologies—which could drastically cut drilling times and costs.
The problem is many electrically powered downhole generators are limited to low wattages and struggle to withstand high bottomhole temperatures. Companies could use an aboveground generator and run wires down the well, but that option limits a well’s potential depth; the longer the wire, the more electricity is lost, and lost energy means lost money.
NLR’s high-temperature alternator, on the other hand, can generate all the electricity advanced downhole operations need—right at the drill bit. To do that, it uses drilling mud to rotate the alternator and generate electricity instead of mechanical force. The alternator is designed to withstand high temperatures, pressures, and corrosion, and laboratory tests show it can maintain more than 84% efficiency in a close to 500-degree Fahrenheit environment. The alternator team also collaborated with other NLR experts to develop high-temperature switches and other electronics needed for downhole power generation.
In other words, it is one of the hottest options for electrical generation in extreme environments—whether that is a superdeep geothermal well or in especially hot spots of other electricity-driven technologies, like nuclear power plants, electric airplane motors, mining equipment, or the power grid.
#2: Reliable Eyes That Survive Deep Wells
Who could benefit: Geothermal energy developers
What’s the goal: To help geothermal developers monitor drilling performance and quickly access resources previously thought to be out of reach
Why it matters: Laptops have fans for a reason: Electronics do not like heat. But the geothermal industry needs electronics that can spelunk into temperatures hot enough to melt tin. Specifically, they need sensors—their eyes in the underground dark—to monitor each well’s trajectory and more.
Because heat is not the only threat.
Deep underground, pressures can reach 2,000 atmospheres (almost double the pressure found in the deepest part of the oceans), harsh acids can degrade steel, and vibrations can shatter sensors. If electronics cannot withstand these conditions for long, companies must pull them back up to the surface—sometimes a multimile trip—to fix or replace them. New equipment costs money. And, as they say, time is money, too. Fixing equipment costs both.
Luckily, an NLR invention could help electronics endure even the most extreme environments. Most commercially available electronics can only work well in temperatures up to about 350 degrees Fahrenheit (or 180 degrees Celsius). But the laboratory’s hardy sensor uses a new class of semiconductor (which is built with gallium nitride, silicon carbide, and other heat-tolerant materials rather than traditional silicon) and can run reliably even if temperatures soar to metal-melting heights.
These heat-resistant eyes could give geothermal developers reliable insights on well trajectory, temperature, pressure, and more—even in the deepest wells. And that real-time data can help them quickly access powerful reservoirs previously thought to be too hot or too expensive to reach.
#3: Estimate Costs and Profits Before Breaking Ground
Who could benefit: Communities and government decision makers interested in launching a geothermal energy project
What’s the goal: To estimate the lifetime economic potential of a new geothermal project
Why it matters: Hardy technologies can help geothermal developers access more geothermal resources—and potentially improve a project’s economics, too. But even so, companies must still spend a borehole-sized amount of capital long before they can generate energy and turn a profit. Deep holes cost more (even if their potential profits could be greater). And what developers will find underground is not always clear.
But NLR's GEOPHIRES tool can help developers—as well as communities, government officials, and startups—determine if a well would be a worthwhile investment.
GEOPHIRES is a publicly available software modeling tool. Users can estimate capital, operation, and maintenance costs based on a site’s specific features and estimate potential profits, depending on what kind of energy they plan to generate and where. For example, users can plug in their anticipated construction timeline, reservoir depth and type, and power plant format, as well as additional influential factors, like inflation rates, electricity sales prices, exploration capital costs, and even property taxes.
The tool then offers projected lifetime profits, return on investment timelines, and other data that can help reduce uncertainty and better quantify a site’s long-term economic potential.
The tool also includes case studies, so users can see real-life examples or tweak a similar project rather than start from scratch. One case study, for example, focuses on the 500-megawatt Cape Station geothermal plant in Utah. The GEOPHIRES tool estimates that project could net more than $180 million over its lifetime—meaning, even after hefty initial investments, the project is expected to generate both reliable electricity and profits.
Geothermal resources are “always on,” and some of today’s reservoirs have lasted decades or even centuries, providing steady sources of energy and income. Communities and companies will likely continue to consider high upfront costs when deciding whether to invest in a new project, but GEOPHIRES can give them a way to see just how hot their potential could get.
Explore thousands of licensable technologies, methods, and tools that could help you do what you do best. Learn more about NLR's research on geothermal energy. And visit NLR's licensing page to learn more about how to make the laboratory’s technologies work for your business.
Last Updated April 28, 2026