Pennsylvania’s rich oil history and the explosion of shale gas drilling over the last 15 years have brought more than fossil fuels to the surface: They’ve produced reams of data about underground conditions in all over the commonwealth.

It turns out that geothermal heat sources — layers of subterranean warmth up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit — are found less than 8,000 feet below the surface nearly everywhere in the state. New pilot programs to harvest this energy are emerging — but without federal support, they are unlikely to succeed.

The first geothermal energy project in Pennsylvania is a group effort spearheaded by natural gas company CNX Resources Corp., along with two state environmental agencies, Lehigh University and others.

The proposal aims to reuse a shale gas well in Indiana County to produce 1 megawatt of power, or about the amount of electricity used by 400 to 900 homes a year. It’s a modest start, but the insights gained from this pilot could be applied to thousands of pre-drilled wells statewide.

Geothermal power harnesses the Earth’s internal heat by circulating a fluid through underground reservoirs, where it absorbs thermal energy. This heat can either generate steam to drive turbines or be transferred to a secondary fluid with a lower boiling point, which then vaporizes to generate electricity. The earth’s heat used for this process is, in practice, inexhaustible.

Unlike solar and wind, geothermal energy provides a stable and continuous power source, though its viability depends on the location and accessibility of underground heat reservoirs. In that respect, Pennsylvania could not be better-suited for geothermal energy production.

While the Trump Administration has tried to freeze funding for most green energy initiatives supported by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, geothermal is still in the administration’s good graces. This is promising, as federal support is crucial to making geothermal widely available. As a reliable renewable energy source, it has the potential to benefit the public and help stabilize the electrical grid, which will soon face increased demand from computing and data centers.

As with all new industries, the costs of discovery could be high, and time is of the essence. Federal support will remove some financial friction, while also ensuring that new knowledge doesn’t become a single company’s proprietary information.

It’s also a great opportunity to utilize the wealth of information that the oil and gas industry has already gathered on underground conditions — and maybe even to repurpose abandoned wells that, if left uncapped, can leak methane and other hazards into the air and groundwater.

The Trump administration has promised to “unleash” the potential of fossil fuels, hydropower, nuclear energy and geothermal sources. If these goals are sincere, the U.S. Department of Energy should support the pilot effort to harvest Pennsylvania’s vast, untapped geothermal energy.

— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via TNS