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The U.S. Department of Energy announced the establishment of a geothermal energy center of excellence on the campus of the National Laboratory of the Rockies in Colorado, with the aim of bringing together national laboratories, industry, and academia to address the technical barriers to expanding this resource.
The article examines the transformation of geothermal energy in the United States from a geographically limited resource into a field supported by the Department of Energy and drilling and energy companies, with a new national center established and commercial projects under development. It argues that this path could increase competition with coal and gas in baseload electricity generation, although most new capacity has not yet entered operation.