The U.S. Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technology Office (GTO) Machine Learning for Geothermal Energy funding opportunity announcement (FOA) supports projects that will develop new analytical tools for finding and developing geothermal resources and establish the practice of machine learning in geothermal operations. The rapidly advancing field of Machine Learning (ML) offers substantial opportunities for technology advancement and cost reduction throughout the geothermal project lifecycle, from resource exploration to power plant operations.
Under this funding opportunity, GTO is interested in two topic areas:
Topic 1: Machine Learning for Geothermal Exploration - GTO seeks projects that advance geothermal exploration through the application of machine learning techniques to geological, geophysical, geochemical, borehole, and other relevant datasets. Of particular interest to GTO are projects that will identify data acquisition targets and build community datasets for future work.
Topic 2: Advanced Analytics for Efficiency and Automation in Geothermal Operations - GTO seeks projects that apply advanced analytics to power plant and other operator datasets, with the goal of improving operations and resource management.
Eligibility:
Penn State may only submit up to two Concept Papers and one Full Application for each topic area of this FOA. This limitation does not prohibit an applicant from collaborating on other applications (e.g., as a potential Subrecipient or partner) so long as the entity is only listed as the prime applicant on one Full Application submitted under this FOA.
EERE makes an independent assessment of each Concept Paper based on the criteria in Section V.A.i of the FOA. EERE will encourage a subset of applicants to submit Full Applications. An applicant who receives a “discouraged” notification may still submit a Full Application. EERE will review all eligible Full Applications. However, by discouraging the submission of a Full Application, EERE intends to convey its lack of programmatic interest in the proposed project in an effort to save the applicant the time and expense of preparing an application that is unlikely to be selected for award negotiations. Other applicants will be discouraged from submitting a Full Application.
You must notify the Limited Submissions Office with EERE notification since only one Full Application for each topic from Penn State may be submitted. (See pages 19 - 21 in FOA)
Interested applicants should send the following documents in sequence in one PDF (Last Name_DOEEERE1956_2018) no later than 4:00 p.m. on the internal submission deadline:
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Cover Page must include:
- Project Title
- Topic Area (Topic 1 or Topic 2)
- The technical and business points of contact, names of all team member organizations
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Technology Description (1-page maximum) to include:
- The proposed technology, including its basic operating principles and how it is unique and innovative;
- The proposed technology’s target level of performance (applicants should provide technical data or other support to show how the proposed target could be met);
- The current state-of-the-art in the relevant field and application, including key shortcomings, limitations, and challenges;
- The data sources that will be used in the project
- How the proposed technology will overcome the shortcomings, limitations, and challenges in the relevant field and application;
- The potential impact that the proposed project would have on the relevant field and application;
- The key technical risks/issues associated with the proposed technology development plan; and
- The impact that EERE funding would have on the proposed project.
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Addendum (1-page maximum) Describe succinctly the qualifications, experience, and capabilities of the proposed Project Team, including:
- Whether the Principal Investigator (PI) and Project Team have the skill and expertise needed to successfully execute the project plan;
- Whether the applicant has prior experience which demonstrates an ability to perform tasks of similar risk and complexity;
- Whether the applicant has worked together with its teaming partners on prior projects or programs; and
- Whether the applicant has adequate access to equipment and facilities necessary to accomplish the effort and/or clearly explain how it intends to obtain access to the necessary equipment and facilities.
Applicants may provide graphs, charts, or other data to supplement their Technology Description.
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Formatting Guidelines and Page Limit:
- Font/size: Times New Roman (12 pt.)
- Document margins: 1.0” (top, bottom, left and right)
- Standard paper size (8 ½” x 11)