Cascaded uses of geothermal energy include district heating and industrial uses as well as agricultural applications like greenhouses and fisheries.
Deep Direct Use (DDU) geothermal applications utilize natural geothermal fluid for a full spectrum of cascading uses, including district heating and cooling, commercial and residential applications, industrial processes, and agricultural uses. As the demand for net-zero energy campuses, military installations, and offices increases, DDU offers great opportunities to significantly expand the impact and reach of geothermal energy to a much wider swath of the country. These lower temperature geothermal applications are inviting for near-term deployment and could provide a large fraction of the energy demand currently supplied by high-grade fossil fuels.
What is Deep Direct Use?
DDU is an emerging technology area in the geothermal sector that draws on lower temperature geothermal resources that are shallower than most conventional hydrothermal resources. Deeper than geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) and other conventional direct use systems, DDU is deployable at a similar temperature range (40 C - 150 C) but at a much larger scale. DDU maximizes system efficiencies and return on investment. This new technology could result in large scale, low temperature geothermal applications in a much wider swath of the country, including the Eastern United States. Read White Paper
Learn more about low temperature geothermal resources here.
Photo credits: Geothermal Education Office, Ball State University, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Geothermal Resources Council.