Geothermal Energy from Oil and gas Demonstrated Engineering (GEODE) Funding Opportunity Announcement | DE FOA 0002776

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0002776

The Geothermal Energy from Oil and gas Demonstrated Engineering (GEODE) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), issued by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO), is designed to speed up progress in the U.S. geothermal sector by intentionally linking it with the oil and gas industry. The basic premise is practical: oil and gas is larger, more mature, and generally better capitalized, and it has decades of experience with subsurface engineering, drilling, reservoir characterization, well construction, completion methods, and field operations. Because many of those same capabilities are directly relevant to geothermal development, DOE is using this FOA to encourage technology transfer, shared learning, and coordinated research that can reduce geothermal cost, risk, and development time.

Rather than funding a collection of unrelated projects, this FOA centers on creating a formal consortium structure. DOE’s goal is to select a single lead organization that will stand up, organize, and operate a geothermal-oil-and-gas collaboration consortium. In other words, the prime awardee is expected to act as the consortium manager and integrator, building a durable partnership ecosystem that includes a broad mix of stakeholders. The FOA emphasizes bringing together diverse participants such as operators, service and technology companies, universities, and national laboratories, with the consortium model serving as a mechanism to align R&D priorities, share resources and expertise, and run competitive sub-awards or solicitations that advance DOE-GTO objectives.

The award instrument is a cooperative agreement, which typically means DOE expects to have substantial involvement in the project’s execution compared to a standard grant. That fits the nature of the effort: establishing governance, setting research agendas, ensuring fair and transparent project selection processes, and tracking performance against program goals often benefits from active federal technical and programmatic engagement. The FOA is categorized as discretionary funding, under the Energy funding activity category, and is associated with CFDA number 81.087.

A key point of this opportunity is that it is structured as a single, large award. The expected number of awards is one, with an award ceiling of $165,000,000. This size and single-award approach signals that DOE is looking for a well-qualified entity capable of managing a complex, multi-party consortium and overseeing a portfolio of R&D efforts through coordinated solicitations, rather than simply executing one narrow technical project. The lead organization’s responsibilities would reasonably include consortium formation and outreach, establishing membership and participation pathways, developing operating procedures and governance (for example, how decisions are made, how priorities are set, and how projects are selected), and administering R&D solicitations that channel funding to projects aligned with geothermal advancement through oil-and-gas-relevant methods and capabilities.

Eligibility is listed as unrestricted, meaning the competition is open to any type of entity, subject to any additional eligibility clarifications that may appear in the FOA’s full text. The issuing office is the Department of Energy, Golden Field Office. The FOA was created on July 28, 2022, and the original full application deadline was October 28, 2022, with applications due by 5:00 PM Eastern Time on that date. The official funding opportunity identifiers are the title “Geothermal Energy from Oil and gas Demonstrated Engineering (GEODE) Funding Opportunity Announcement” and the funding opportunity number DE-FOA-0002776.

Overall, GEODE is best understood as an industry-bridging, consortium-building initiative intended to make geothermal development more scalable and investable by tapping into oil and gas know-how, supply chains, and engineering practices. The DOE’s strategy here is less about a single technology bet and more about creating an organized pathway for ongoing collaboration and competitively selected R&D that can steadily move geothermal engineering, demonstration, and commercialization forward using shared subsurface expertise.

• The Department of Energy, Golden Field Office in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Geothermal Energy from Oil and gas Demonstrated Engineering (GEODE) Funding Opportunity Announcement" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.087.
• This funding opportunity was created on Jul 28, 2022.
• Applicants must submit their applications by Oct 28, 2022 Full applications due by 500 PM ET 10/28/2022.. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $165,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 1 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled Additional Information on Eligibility.

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