The clean energy transformation has largely been an above-ground story. Over the past two decades, solar, wind, and battery storage have transformed electricity systems and become increasingly cost-competitive. As growing electricity demand, energy security concerns, and decarbonization goals drive the search for clean, reliable, and complementary energy sources, attention is increasingly turning to next-generation geothermal technologies such as superhot rock, enhanced geothermal systems, and advanced geothermal systems.
Achieving commercial viability for such technologies requires field-scale testing using infrastructure that is costly, technically complex, and often beyond the reach of individual companies, particularly early-stage developers. Test centres provide shared infrastructure that can address these high initial costs and facilitate rapid innovation.
This brief explains why test centres have become an increasingly important policy tool for accelerating energy innovation, what lessons can be drawn from existing programs, and why intellectual property (IP) and data-sharing frameworks are central to attracting industry participation.
This is Issue Brief 1 in the geothermal IP series by Clean Air Task Force, in collaboration with the Cascade Institute.
