A joint project between the DOE's Office of Fossil Energy (FE) and Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) was announced last week, teaming up an unlikely pair of geothermal and fossil fuel drilling techniques.

The Geothermal Technologies Program will finance research and development to "demonstrate low temperature geothermal...power generation systems using [water] from oilfield operations" - DoE

In short, about 10 barrels of hot water are produced along with each barrel of oil in the United States. The DOE wants to turn the thermal energy of that water into useful electricity that can then be added to the grid.

The research itself seeks to collect data on the best climates and system setups for putting these plants into production.

Part of this initiative includes the purchase of a low temperature geothermal electricity unit from Ormat Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: ORA)

This unit will be located at the Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing center in Wyoming, where researchers will then turn otherwise discarded water into a valuable energy resource.