Geothermal: They Know the Drill

Clean energy skeptic Peter Zeihan describes newest Fervo Energy geothermal project.
This is not your Grandpa’s geothermal, this is advanced geothermal, which could be theoretically available just about anywhere, using new drilling tech pioneered in the oil and gas industry, to reach hot rocks that would historically have been out of reach.

Tim Latimer is CEO of Fervo Energy, the project Zeihan is talking about.

Associated Press:

An advanced geothermal project has begun pumping carbon-free electricity onto the Nevada grid to power Google data centers there, Google announced Tuesday. 

Getting electrons onto the grid for the first time is a milestone many new energy companies never reach, said Tim Latimer, CEO and co-founder of Google’s geothermal partner in the project, Houston-based Fervo Energy. 

“I think it will be big and it will continue to vault geothermal into a lot more prominence than it has been,” Latimer said in an interview.

The International Energy Agency has long projected geothermal could be a serious solution to climate change. It said in a 2011 roadmap document that geothermal could reach some 3.5% of global electricity generation annually by 2050, avoiding almost 800 megatonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year.

But that potential has been mostly unrealized up until now. Today’s announcement could mark a turning point.

Fervo is using this first pilot to launch other projects that will deliver far more carbon-free electricity to the grid. It’s currently completing initial drilling in southwest Utah for a 400-megawatt project.

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Google announced back in 2020 that it would use carbon-free energy every hour of every day, wherever it operates, by 2030. 

Many energy experts believe huge companies like Google can play a catalytic role in accelerating clean energy. 

Terrell noted the company was also an early supporter of wind and solar projects, helping those markets take off.

“It’s a very similar situation. Now that we’ve set a goal to be 24/7 carbon-free energy, we have found it will take more than just wind, solar and storage to achieve that goal,” Terrell said in an interview. “And frankly to get power grids to 24/7 carbon-free energy as well, we’re going to need this new set of advanced technologies in energy. Looking at this deal with Fervo, we saw an opportunity to play a role in helping to take these technologies to scale.”
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Last year, the Energy Department launched an effort to achieve “aggressive cost reductions” in enhanced geothermal systems. This month, in announcing $44 millionto advance geothermal deployment nationwide, DOE said the United States has potential for 90 gigawatts of geothermal electricity — the equivalent of powering more than 65 million American homes — by 2050.