U.S Geothermal Energy Program five year research plan, 1986--1990. Draft of July 1986

This document is the US Department of Energy FY 1986-FY 1990 Five-Year Research Plan for geothermal energy technologies. The Plan is intended to provide Federal and industry decision-makers an overview of the current status of geothermal resource recovery and conversion technology and of DOE research to improve these technologies. The Plan is formulated within the policy principles of the National Energy Policy Plan (NEPP-V) to promote a balanced and mixed energy supply system and to maximize the practical reliance on the free decisions of the entire populace while maintaining public health, safety, and environmental quality. The objectives of the DOE geothermal R and D program have been integrated with the objectives of the DOE R and D programs for other forms of renewable energy. This integration is documented in the DOE report, ''Renewable Energy Research and Development Outlook'', February 1985, and is described in this Plan. The Geothermal Energy Research Program that is guided by this Plan consists of R and D activities whose objectives address a balance among short-term and long-term goals. The short-term goal is to achieve significant improvements in technical performance through research on second-generation technologies to extract and convert geothermal energy from liquid-dominated hydrothermal reservoirs. These improvements are expected to increase markedly the number of US hydrothermal reservoirs from which industry can produce energy in the near term. The longer-term goal is to determine whether geopressured energy, hot dry rock, and magma are viable future energy sources and to provide a base for industry evaluation of the economics of producing and utilizing these forms of energy. Taken together, these four types of geothermal energy sources and the scientific and technical improvements, sought by the Program offer significant potential to contribute to the Nation's economic and energy security goals