The U.S. Department of Energy recently launched the National Geothermal Data System (NGDS), a free online tool intended to accelerate research and development to drive down the cost and improve the accuracy of subsurface exploration while encouraging investment in geothermal-energy production.
The NGDS encompasses thousands of databases, geologic maps, and reports, drawing from millions of digitized records that previously were unavailable.
Data from all Energy Department-funded geothermal research projects are submitted to the network through a dedicated interface called the Geothermal Data Repository. The NGDS conforms to U.S. Geosciences Information Network protocols and uses the same free, open-source content-management system as Data.gov, making NGDS data fully transparent to researchers and developers.
To learn more about the NGDS, go to www.geothermaldata.org.