地热能目前正在接受大量的持续调查，以确定其作为短期能源的整体潜力，有助于解决福特预测的未来化石燃料供应短缺问题。鼓励大量利用此类资源的关键是确定并随后开发用于能源密集型工业用户和/或大型市政公用事业系统的详细工程设计。该分析为位于科罗拉多州圣路易斯谷的地热资源在大麦麦芽行业的应用开发了详细设计。 这将为商业开发商提供评估其自身应用概念的手段，并定量确定工业系统设计参数对此类应用的技术和经济可行性的潜在影响。引文:宾夕法尼亚州费城ASHRAE学报第85卷第1部分研讨会

Geothermal energy is currently receiving numerous continuing investigations to ascertain itsoverall potential as a near-term energy resource capable of contributing to solutions to theoft predicted shortages of fossil fuel supplies in the future. The key to encouraging a significantutilization of such a resource is to identify and subsequently develop detailed engineering designs for applications to energy intensive industrial users and/or large municipal districtutility systems. This analysis develops a detailed design for the application of the geothermalresource as located in the San Luis Valley, Colorado, to the barley malting industry. Thisshould provide commercial developers with the means to assess their own application concepts andto quantitatively determine the potential impact of industrial system design parameters on thetechnical and economic viability of such applications.