Fervo Energy achieved first power at its Cape Station power plant in Beaver County, Utah this week. The enhanced geothermal systems provider is backed by Google. The first of three 33 MW GeoBlocks is now supplying electricity to the grid. Commercial operation is expected to begin next week.
Another 66 MW of capacity is slated to come online by New Year. Fervo aims to have 100 MW online by New Year and half a gigawatt by 2028. The station has the potential to eventually scale to more than four gigawatts of capacity. For now, the company is working toward fulfilling 900 MW of contracted capacity.
Technology borrows from oil and gas
Enhanced geothermal systems use heat generated by the Earth's crust. The heat converts water into steam. Turbines then convert the steam into energy. Fervo borrows technologies originally developed by the oil and gas industry to get water deep enough.
Workers dig two parallel wells to around 8,000 feet below the surface. The rock is then fractured to allow water to pass between the two wells. The water is heated to 190 degrees Celsius in the process.
Scale expands beyond early project
Fervo demonstrated the technology at its Project Red site back in 2023. That site generated a modest 3.5 MW of power. Cape Station is orders of magnitude larger in scope than the earlier project.
Google has been an early proponent of geothermal power generation going back to at least 2008. The search and advertising giant is a major beneficiary of the buildout. Google also agreed to buy power from Ormat Technologies and NV Energy earlier this year.
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Meta has also been investing in geothermal power due to grid constraints. Meta partnered with Sage Geosystems in 2024 to deliver up to 150 MW of power. Think tank Rhodium estimated last year that geothermal could meet up to 64 percent of datacenter demand by the end of the decade.
However, those bit barns could end up paying a 20 percent premium for the energy. Fervo is working toward its near-term deployment goals as the next step in the project.
