Saturday, November 7, 2009
The other $2 million for geothermal
There's been a little confusion over the size of the DOE award to AZGS announced last week to deploy the National Geothermal Data System among state geological surveys across the country and populate it with state-specific data.
The proposal we submitted on behalf of the Association of American State Geologists was for $15.8 million to cover costs of setting up the data system among 40 states. DOE's reviewers urged them to provide up to $2 million more, for a total of $17.8 million, to cover costs of getting the remaining states integrated into the system. At this point, it looks like we have at least 44 of the states in the coalition and more will be participating.
We don't have the money in hand yet. DOE has selected our proposal for negotiation, so it will likely take 4-6 months before that is completed.