Susan Petty

Founder, President and Chairman of the Board, Hotrock Energy Research Organization (HERO)

Ambassador

Susan Petty has more than 45 years of experience in the geothermal industry. She founded Hotrock Energy Research Organization (HERO) in 2015 and serves as the organization’s Board Chairman and President. HERO conducts research into SuperHot EGS and provides assistance to tribes, PUDs and Rural Electric Coops in determining if they have geothermal development potential. In addition, she co-founded AltaRock Energy, Inc. in 2007 and was President and Chief Technology Officer until 2022; she continues serving part-time as the company President. From 2018 to 2022, she was Chief Technology Officer, and then from 2021-2022, she was Senior Advisor to Cyrq Energy, LLC, a leader in renewable energy technology with geothermal, solar, and storage facilities. In addition to her extensive experience in the private sector, Petty has worked with the U.S. Department of Energy in performing policy studies, including the economic modeling of geothermal pricing and the impact of technology improvement on the cost of geothermal power. She has been instrumental in designing software, developing information, planning, and developing public policy in geothermal energy.

Petty’s work has included all aspects of testing, evaluation, analysis, modeling, and optimization for geothermal wells, wellfields, and power plants. Her career has also involved negotiating geothermal lease agreements, power sales agreements, geothermal project financing agreements, and geothermal property sales and purchases, and she has completed policy studies for state and federal agencies. She has driven geothermal electrical generation projects in locations around the world, including California, Nevada, Oregon, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Central America.

Petty holds a BA in Geology from Princeton University and an MS in Groundwater Hydrology from the University of Hawaii.