Our new member company, Eden GeoPower, is truly embodying the saying “every end is a new beginning” by leveraging what’s left of traditional energy extraction methods to pave the way for new, sustainable ones.

The focus of Eden GeoPower is geothermal heat, a renewable resource that has the potential to provide GW’s of power to the energy budget. Geothermal power generation harnesses the naturally occurring heat beneath the earth’s crust to run a power cycle, eliminating the need to rely on expensive and pollutant methods like burning fossil fuels to provide the heat needed for power generation.  According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, it is estimated that heat within 10,000 kilometers of the earth’s surface contains 50,000 times more energy than all of the oil and gas resources in the world combined. Despite this, geothermal energy only accounts for 0.3 percent of the world’s power generation*, and less than 1% of the U.S. renewable energy budget.

This is where the mission of Eden GeoPower comes into play. The company is aiming to diversify the current U.S. renewable energy portfolio by developing innovative solutions to some of the obstacles associated with geothermal energy-largely by tapping into overlooked geothermal reservoirs.

One of the major obstacles to geothermal power is high costs associated with drilling the required wells. At the same time, millions of dollars are spent to plug depleted oil/gas and unused injection wells every year. The founders of Eden GeoPower recognized the potential for these non-producing wells to solve two problems at once by transforming them into energy sources for geothermal power. The power generated from these sites could then be used to either replace diesel generators in ongoing oil field operations or be sold to the grid in power purchase agreements.

Eden GeoPower was founded in April 2017 by Paris Smalls and Ammar Alali. Both are in the process of earning their PhDs from MIT in geophysics. They are currently working towards partnering with governments across the globe on retrofitting wells to provide sources of low cost and reliable electricity, as well as on projects to desalinate water in abandoned oil wells.

Greentown Labs is thrilled to welcome Eden GeoPower to the community, and we’re eager to work with them to ensure their endeavors are as successful as possible. Geothermal energy is a resource teeming with potential, and we believe Eden GeoPower’s creative thinking is the key to the promising future of the industry.

Learn more about Eden GeoPower here, and make sure to follow them @Eden_Geopower, and look for updates from @GreentownLabs.

*BP.com: geothermal power