Branches of the Department of Defense have entered into agreements with Eavor, Teverra and Zanskar Geothermal and Minerals to advance exploratory geothermal projects at four military installations across the country.
The initiatives, which are led by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Army and the Defense Innovation Unit, are part of the agency’s efforts to utilize local and carbon-free energy sources and reduce risks related to traditional on-grid electrical systems, DIU said Wednesday.
Eavor is teaming up with the Air Force Joint Base San Antonio to study the potential of a subsurface heat exchanger that uses conductive instead of convective heat transfer.
Teverra is using the Army’s Fort Wainwright base in Alaska to develop proprietary technology that is expected to improve energy exploration and production as well as resource delineation.
Zanskar will test an artificial intelligence-enabled discovery suite that is designed to boost the accuracy and speed of identifying and de-risking geothermal resources at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho and Fort Irwin in California.
“This is a first-of-its-kind effort within the DoD, and we are pleased to support deployment of advanced commercial technologies for installation and community energy resilience leveraging carbon-free energy sources,” said Michael Callahan, DIU senior energy advisor and program manager.