Project InnerSpace

United States · Nonprofit Organization Management

Project InnerSpace (InnerSpace) is a multi-phase initiative focused on accelerating global geothermal prospecting and development. InnerSpace is directed by Project InnerSpace, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to bringing interdisciplinary stakeholders together to enable development of geothermal energy anywhere in the world. InnerSpace is being led by Jamie Beard, an internationally recognized leader in the ‘geothermal anywhere' movement, with the support of Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt. InnerSpace will serve as driver and convener of two global geothermal innovation and deployment sprints aimed at engaging the oil and gas industry and innovative startups in geothermal resource prospecting and development within an accelerated time frame. InnerSpace will also drive much-needed foundational studies that will inform its innovation sprints. The InnerSpace sprints will tackle specific obstacles to widespread geothermal development that are not efficiently addressed by standard organizational structures, and that would benefit society broadly in ways that industry cannot yet monetize. These include subsurface resource characterization to reduce pre-project risk, and funding for ‘first of their kind' geothermal projects that are difficult to deploy utilizing existing funding mechanisms. By removing these obstacles through purposeful, targeted innovation and interdisciplinary collaboration, within this decade geothermal energy could be scaled into terawatts of output at a cost competitive with solar and wind.