About the Texas Geothermal Institute (TGI)
The Texas Geothermal Institute (TGI) is a newly formed consortium of institutional and industry partners, led by the Geothermal Entrepreneurship Organization (GEO). TGI is an interdisciplinary, cross-state demand-pull innovation and commercialization exercise aimed at engaging top researchers and research institutions in Texas within petroleum and geoscience disciplines with the most pressing technological obstacles to widespread geothermal development. Institutional members of the consortium include the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University, The University of Houston, Southern Methodist University, Rice University, and Texas Christian University, with more than a dozen oil and gas industry entities participating as partners.
Jamie C. Beard, Esq.
University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Thomas A. Blasingame
Texas A&M University
Principal Investigator
Dr. Birol Dindoruk
University of Houston
Technical Co-Investigator
Texas Geothermal Institute (TGI)
Consortium Leadership
Ordered Alphabetically
Dr. John Holbrook
Texas Christian University
GEO Resource Characterization Team
Dr. Sergio Kapusta
Rice University
GEO Resource Characterization Team
Maria Richards
Southern Methodist University
GEO Resource Characterization Team
Jamie C. Beard, Esq.
University of Texas at Austin
Geothermal Entrepreneurship Organization
Dr. Silviu Livescu
University of Texas at Austin
Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering
Dr. Ken Wisian
University of Texas at Austin
Bureau of Economic Geology
Texas Geothermal Institute
Roadmapping Team
TGI's Approach
The TGI will take GEO’s successful model of demand-pull innovation for geothermal and expand it across research institutions in Texas with deep expertise in geoscience, well and subsurface engineering. The consortium will perform a series of design and road-mapping sprints, producing a succinct technology development roadmap that highlights areas where oil and gas entities are willing to collaborate on geothermal technology development, identifying areas where funding for R&D is needed to fill technology gaps and alleviate pain points, and determining funding priorities for each identified area of need.
With expected publication in spring of 2022, the TGI roadmap will be utilized by a variety of stakeholders to guide funding interest to projects prioritized as likely to have the most impact in supporting the growth and development of geothermal energy in Texas and beyond. The TGI is supported by Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt.