Fervo Energy
Canvas Category OEM : Electrical Equipment
Our mission is to leverage innovation in geoscience to accelerate the clean energy transition by providing cost-effective, reliable geothermal energy. We have pioneered and proven a new approach to next-generation geothermal, a 24/7 carbon-free energy resource crucial to solving climate change. Power buyers are seeking to bolster reliability, reduce costs, and meet clean energy mandates, corporations are voluntarily establishing 24/7 carbon-free electricity targets, and the federal government is mandating that federal facilities be powered by carbon free power by 2030. Geothermal is the ideal energy source to meet that demand as well as complement variable generation sources such as solar and wind.
Assembly Line
Fervo Energy Announces 320 MW Power Purchase Agreements with Southern California Edison
Fervo Energy, the leader in next-generation geothermal energy, announced the execution of two power purchase agreements (PPAs) totaling 320 MW with Southern California Edison (SCE), one of the nation’s largest utilities. The 15-year agreements for 24/7 carbon-free geothermal energy will provide reliable, clean, and affordable power for the equivalent of 350,000 homes across Southern California and support SCE’s vision to help California transition to a cleaner energy future.
SCE will purchase the power from Fervo Energy’s 400 MW Cape Station project currently under construction in southwest Utah. The first 70 MW phase of the project is expected to be operational by 2026 and the second phase will be operational by 2028.
🏴 Fervo Energy Raises $244 Million to Accelerate Deployment of Next-Generation Geothermal
Fervo Energy, the leader in next-generation geothermal development, announced that it has raised $244 million in new funding led by Devon Energy, a pioneer in shale oil and gas. This financing will unlock Fervo’s next phase of growth, deploying proven technology adapted from the oil and gas industry at scale to deliver commercially viable 24/7 carbon-free energy. Galvanize Climate Solutions, John Arnold, Liberty Mutual Investments, Marunouchi Innovation Partners, Mercuria, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries also joined the round alongside existing investors Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund, Congruent Ventures, DCVC, Elemental Excelerator, Helmerich & Payne, and Impact Science Ventures.
Since its last fundraise, Fervo has successfully brought its first commercial project online, establishing Fervo’s system as the most productive enhanced geothermal system (EGS) in history. Fervo has also begun drilling at Cape Station, a 400 MW project in Beaver County, Utah. Early drilling results show reduced drilling times and lower costs that significantly exceed Department of Energy expectations for EGS. The fundraise will support Fervo’s continued operations at Cape Station, which will begin delivering clean electricity to the grid in 2026.
The role of flexible geothermal power in decarbonized electricity systems
Enhanced geothermal systems (EGSs) are an emerging energy technology with the potential to greatly expand the viable resource base for geothermal power generation. Although EGSs have traditionally been envisioned as ‘baseload’ resources, flexible operation of EGS wellfields could allow these plants to provide load-following generation and long-duration energy storage. In this work we evaluate the impact of operational flexibility on the long-run system value and deployment potential of EGS power in the western United States. We find that load-following generation and in-reservoir energy storage enhance the role of EGS power in least-cost decarbonized electricity systems, substantially increasing optimal geothermal penetration and reducing bulk electricity supply costs compared to systems with inflexible EGSs or no EGSs. Flexible geothermal plants preferentially displace the most expensive competing resources by shifting their generation on diurnal and seasonal timescales, with round-trip energy storage efficiencies of 59–93%. Benefits of EGS flexibility are robust across a range of electricity market and geothermal technology development scenarios.
Fervo heralds a revolution in geothermal power technology
Fervo’s “next-generation geothermal” technology has proven itself in testing, becoming the most productive enhanced geothermal plant in history. The company hopes its approach will radically expand access to clean energy, like shale did for oil.
The fact that some 40% of all geothermal wells don’t end up working out, has put the brakes on hot rocks as a power source. According to IRENA, geothermal contributes about half of one percent of global renewable energy, and a vanishingly tiny slice of overall global energy production.
Fervo’s solution is a bit more down-to-Earth, as it were, and draws on much more established, high-volume machinery and techniques from oil and gas production. Essentially, Fervo aims to do for geothermal what shale oil and fracking did for hydrocarbons, radically improving access to resources and unlocking energy where previously it was too expensive to get to.
Fervo’s first full-scale commercial pilot, Project Red in Nevada, is the first time a geothermal project has ever drilled a horizontal pair of bores, extending some 3,250 ft (990 m) laterally. It has now completed a 30-day well test, producing a flow rate of 63 liters per second, at temperatures up to 191 °C (376 °F). It produces 3.4 megawatts of power, or about enough to power 500 US homes.
Commercial-Scale Demonstration of a First-of-a-Kind Enhanced Geothermal System
Fervo Energy has completed construction of a commercial enhanced geothermal system (EGS) project and has qualified full functionality of the system through production testing at commercially relevant operating conditions. The project site is located in a nearfield setting adjacent to an operating geothermal power station in north-central Nevada and is designed to deliver an uplift in high-temperature geothermal flow rates to increase the power capacity at the facility.
The project involved drilling a first-of-a-kind EGS horizontal doublet well system, consisting of an injection and production well pair within a high-temperature, hard rock geothermal formation. The lithology of the target reservoir is characterized as a mixed metasedimentary and igneous formation, comprised of phyllite, quartzite, diorite, and granodiorite, representative of the geology across the most prospective geothermal areas throughout the western US. The lateral sections of the wells were drilled with 9 7/8” hole size, completed with 7” casing, extended approximately 3,250 ft horizontally, and reached a maximum measured temperature of 376 $^\circ$F. A modern multistage, plug-and-perforate stimulation treatment design with proppant was used to enhance the permeability of both horizontal wells. A 37-day crossflow production test was performed in April-May 2023, confirming that the EGS wells are connected hydraulically by a highly conductive fracture network. During production testing, the system achieved flow rates of up to 63 L/s, production temperatures of up to 336 $^\circ$F and a peak power production of 3.5 MW electric power equivalent. Flow profile wireline logs were performed on the horizontal injection well during the crossflow test, validating that the stimulation treatment design resulted in flow allocation along the entire lateral. Production temperature increased continuously throughout the test, indicating that no significant thermal short-circuit pathways were created during stimulation operations.
Based on a review of historic EGS projects, Fervo’s horizontal doublet well design is most productive EGS system to-date in terms of flow rate and electric power equivalent. In successfully completing this project, we have demonstrated that no major technical barriers exist to deploying horizontal EGS systems in similar metasedimentary or igneous formations up to temperatures of approximately 400 $^\circ$F. Numerical reservoir simulation models calibrated with the field data from this project demonstrate a clear innovation pathway to increasing the power capacity up to 8 MW of electric power per production well, meeting or exceeding the performance criteria outlined in Advanced Scenario the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s 2023 Annual Technology Bulletin for geothermal energy.
Energy Startup Says It Has Achieved Geothermal Tech Breakthrough
In a landmark step for enhanced geothermal technology’s potential as a dependable carbon-free energy source, startup Fervo Energy has completed a performance demonstration of its commercial pilot.
The Houston-based company wrapped up a full-scale, 30-day well test at its Project Red site in northern Nevada, which was able to generate 3.5 megawatts of electricity, according to a company statement. (One megawatt can power roughly 750 homes at once.) Project Red will connect to the grid later this year and power Google’s data centers and infrastructure throughout Nevada. It’s a part of the corporate agreement between the startup and Alphabet Inc.’s Google to develop enhanced geothermal systems.