A Portland company that specializes in data compilation and analysis has won a contract to help the Department of Energy harness geothermal energy.

Introspective Systems LLC announced Tuesday that it received a $149,935 Small Business Innovation Research award to support the DOE’s Enhanced Geothermal Systems project. EGS is a technology that pumps water into hot rocks thousands of feet below the Earth’s surface and uses that warmed water to drive conventional steam turbines.

Introspective Systems is developing monitoring software to enable the geothermal systems to be cost competitive and integrated into the electrical grid. It is working on new algorithms and analytical methods to provide enhanced understanding of geothermal systems being developed in the future.

The work is part of a larger body of research aimed at studying ways to combat global warming, according to a news release from the company.

“We are using our deep seismological expertise obtained with National Earthquake Information Center and the US Air Force to develop this system that could be a gamechanger for baseload renewable systems,” said CEO Kay Aikin in the release. “This effort could remove 400 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year or about 6.1 percent of our carbon emissions.”


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