39 JULY 2022 WorldWide Drilling Resource® Geothermal Collegiate Competition Winners Announced Adapted from Information by the U.S. Department of Energy The U.S. Department of Energy announced the winners of the 2022 Geothermal Collegiate Competition, an annual event designed to prepare students to lead the next generation of geothermal energy development. Students from the University of Oklahoma won first place and $10,000 in prize funding. The competition inspires students to consider new career opportunities in the geothermal industry, by helping them learn industry-relevant skills. As part of the competition, students assumed the role of project developers, working with communities across the country to identify local energy challenges and explore geothermal solutions. In addition to technical research, teams conducted an economic feasibility analysis, crafted a strategy for local stakeholder engagement, and created geothermal education modules in partnership with local schools. The team from the University of Oklahoma took first place for designing a system by repurposing six abandoned gas and oil wells in Shawnee, Oklahoma. They were able to provide geothermal energy for more than 730,449 square feet of educational and municipal buildings, including sites within the Absentee Shawnee Tribe and Potawatomi Nation jurisdiction. The team was able to reduce drilling costs by using previously drilled wells that were no longer producing. The University of North Dakota and Reykjavik University earned second place and $5000 for their design of a combined heat and power geothermal system for the city of New Town, North Dakota, located on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and home to the MHA (Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara) Nation. The team used extensive, preexisting geological information from gas and oil exploration in the area to design a system to heat and power an entire district, including potential for greenhouses and aquaculture efforts. The University of Colorado-Boulder took third place and $2500 in prize funding for their design of a geothermal ground source heat pump for a local nonprofit providing a range of support to young people from under-resourced communities. As part of their stakeholder engagement, the team led a series of geothermal educational lessons. The team’s design offsets natural gas emissions from the organization’s existing furnace while also minimizing costs of the transition. The system produces four times the energy it takes to run and is designed with heating during cold Colorado winters in mind, while also GEO Booth 1101 Photo courtesy of the University of Oklahoma. Geothermal Comp. cont’d on page 40.
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