SPE Grand Challenges

The challenges that geothermal energy faces to become a leading player in the net-zero world are well within the areas of expertise of the SPE community, ranging from rapid technology implementation and learning-by-doing to assure competitiveness to establishing suitable funding mechanisms to secure access to capital.

A decade ago, SPE defined key R&D and technology challenges for the industry. To address the more uncertain environment of the 2020s and beyond, we have updated the grand challenges via a January 2023 SPE workshop.

The first brief flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903 did not immediately make the Wright brothers famous; however, within 5 years, enthusiasm for the new technology began to spread around the world. Louis Blériot won a prize for flying over the English Channel in a heavier-than-air craft in 1909, and Charles Lindbergh won the USD 25,000 Orteig prize for the first nonstop flig…