Geothermal Under the Midnight Sun

Collegiate Competition Winners Travel 3,500 Miles To Consider Geothermal Energy with the Native Village of Elim, Alaska

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After winning a collegiate competition, the next step for most teams is to celebrate.

But not for the policy track winners in the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) 2023 Geothermal Collegiate Competition. Their next step was to travel more than 3,500 miles to visit their partner community in Elim, Alaska.

"The Geothermal Collegiate Competition is the only DOE collegiate competition that supports winning teams physically connecting with the community they selected for their project," said Elisabet Metcalfe, communications and stakeholder engagement lead at the Geothermal Technologies Office. "This competition is not solely about workforce development—it also exists to connect communities to new ideas that can have a real impact and to show students the importance of stakeholder engagement."

The team, from Columbia University and Princeton University, collaborated with the Native Village of Elim to explore geothermal design options for the 330-person Alaskan town.

The team's economic analysis of their proposed ocean-based closed-loop geothermal heating and cooling system found that system costs could be recouped in as little as 14 years, while also honoring the Iñupiat way of living from the land and saving residents more than 2.3 million gallons of fuel oil and 70 million pounds of wood over 30 years.

Although the collegiate competition was at the design and planning level, the team, which includes three members who have lived in Alaska, hopes their project can become a reality in Elim or a similar coastal town. The partnership also motivated the Elim community to seek additional technical assistance from DOE programs to find renewable energy solutions appropriate for their town.

Joe DelNero, NREL videographer, spoke with some of the team members during their visit to Elim for their stakeholder event. Part of their conversation is shared here:

Q. Why did you choose to partner with the Native Village of Elim, Alaska, for the Geothermal Collegiate Competition?

A. Jackson Blackwell, master's student in international affairs with a focus on climate and energy policy at Princeton University: I was born in Sitka, in the southeast part of Alaska, and grew up in Soldotna on the Kenai Peninsula. Through this role, and some previous work experience, I have been able to interact with people from across the state. It's really exciting to me to work on a project at home, specifically one in a community that has such high energy costs, in a way that could really give back to the communities and to the state that gave so much to me.

A. Jonathan Lesh, recent graduate with a master's degree in international affairs with a focus on renewable energy policy and finance from Columbia University: There have been folks here [in Elim] who have been interested in geothermal for a long time. There are hot springs near the town that folks have thought of maybe tapping into for their geothermal resources for a couple of decades now.

Q. What was unique about your project?

A. Moises Escobar, recent graduate with a master's in quantitative methods in social sciences from Columbia University: Our team, Aurora Geothermal Solutions, put together a plan for a geothermal district distribution system using heat exchange with the ocean and a borehole array, which Elim has really fantastic geology for.

We heard that fuel oil has run out previously here in Elim, and they've had to have emergency deliveries. It's exciting to know that geothermal is something that wouldn't run out there and would continue to work over the lifetime of a system, which we've forecast to be around 30 years.

A. Blackwell: To me, being in a community of just over 300 people in such a rural part of the state that is listed as a disadvantaged community, that's exciting, as there's a lot of opportunity for impact.

If you can bring down the cost of energy, you can potentially help the community with other economic development that I think in turn could help create jobs and empower a community that already has a lot facing it, whether it's from climate impacts or other associated aspects of that.

Q. Why do you think it is important for DOE to send winning teams to the community of their project?

A. Blackwell: I think any projects, especially those in rural areas, really need to be community led and community driven. And so being here on the ground—able to talk to people, hear what it's like day to day, talk to some of the students, meet with the community leaders—I think that's really empowering because it provides so much perspective that you can't glean from reading about the community or having Zoom conversations.

A. Lesh: It's been really special being here. It's an experience I feel very lucky to have gone through. Everyone here has been more than welcoming. Our number-one priority throughout this competition was that the project we proposed was going to be beneficial to the town.

A. Escobar: It's been great being able to connect with senior leadership here in Elim, but also the kids! We had some people to take us around and give us a tour of the community, and being able to meet people here really gives some meaning to the work that we're doing. We hope it has momentum behind it and that we have taken a real step toward making the project a reality because of this visit.

We can't say thank you enough to the leadership here in Elim. They've welcomed us with open arms, not just during our research process over Zoom but physically here to their community. We are very grateful to them, and they have been a great resource.

Q. What advice do you have for future teams?

A. Lesh: My advice for future teams is to take it seriously. It seemed like a fun school project, but standing here now, it really does have potential to help catalyze a community. And understand that your ideas, even at a very early stage, could potentially have an impact. It's a really great opportunity to learn about geothermal and the types of policies that affect renewable energy development.

A. Blackwell: We were lucky to have a fun group of people who all had different perspectives. We came from an economics background, a finance background, a policy background, and a political background, like myself. It was exciting to put all those different people on a similar team to develop a potential solution.

But again, I don't think any of this could have happened without input from the local community. And I think that's what we really want to strive for moving forward—How can we cultivate more of that dialogue?

Ria Hanson, a master's student in public affairs at Princeton University, was also a member of the winning policy track team but was unable to attend the stakeholder event in Alaska.

The 2024 Geothermal Collegiate Competition opened for registration Aug. 12, 2024. Interested in joining the next cycle? Follow the challenge on HeroX, read the rules, gather your team of three or more collegiate students, and register before Oct. 7, 2024, by clicking "Solve this Challenge."