Colorado
Colorado is a Geothermal Leader
Colorado has some of the strongest geothermal policies in the country. With deep, hot rock beneath its oil and gas basins and a permitting framework already in place, it’s positioned to lead the Mountain West in the next drilling revolution for heat.
Colorado
Why Colorado Matters for Geothermal
Colorado has built the most layered geothermal financial-incentive structure of any state. Its Geothermal Energy Grant Program has provided roughly $10 million since 2023 for feasibility studies, resource characterization, and thermal infrastructure, reaching 43 heating-and-cooling projects and six electricity projects; a companion income-tax credit covers 30 percent of qualifying costs and up to 50 percent for projects with significant electricity-generation potential.
The market pathway is expanding too: SB26-142, signed in June 2026, requires investor-owned utilities to solicit geothermal toward a 300 MW target and gives the PUC 120 days to act, while opening a parallel local-government pathway for thermal energy networks.
Proof of concept is underway too, with Oxy’s DOE-backed GLADE project drilling nearly four miles deep in Weld County in 2025, and Rhodium Group research supported by Project InnerSpace names Colorado among the states best positioned to meet data-center demand growth with geothermal.
Featured State Report
July 2024
The Future of Geothermal in Colorado
Published July 2024 by the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management Commission, the Colorado Geological Survey, and Teverra, this report is a comprehensive assessment of Colorado’s geothermal resources, from the Upper Arkansas Valley to the Raton, Piceance, and San Juan basins, pairing a full resource and market analysis with the regulatory groundwork that became the state’s Deep Geothermal Operations Rules the following month.
Recent Policy Wins
SB26-142 Signed Into Law
Gov. Polis signs SB26-142, expanding the community-scale project cap to 25 MW and requiring utilities to identify and solicit geothermal project proposals in their resource plans.
Bipartisan Multistate Geothermal Alliance Announced
Gov. Polis and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox announce a four-state alliance (Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico) to boost geothermal development across the West, citing that 95% of U.S. geothermal capacity sits in western states.
SB26-142 Introduced and Advances Through Senate
Sen. Matt Ball (D-Denver) introduces Senate Bill 142 to reduce permitting barriers, expand project size limits, and make geological data public. The bill clears the Senate Transportation and Energy Committee 5–2 on April 23, then passes the full Senate.
2025
GLADE Well Reaches Nearly Four Miles Deep
Drilling begins in April 2025; Oxy completes two boreholes to roughly 20,000 feet in under six weeks — one of the deepest wells ever drilled in Colorado.
$9 Million DOE Grant for GLADE Project
The U.S. Department of Energy awards Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) $9 million to test whether new drilling techniques can reduce the cost and time of reaching superdeep geothermal resources in Colorado’s DJ Basin.
2024
ECMC Adopts First Deep Geothermal Operations Rules
The Colorado Energy & Carbon Management Commission adopts the state’s first comprehensive permitting standards for deep geothermal, under expanded authority from SB 23-285.