If you think of Iceland or other geologically active places when you think of geothermal you’re not alone. But a company called Fervo Energy is hoping to change that by constructing what will be the world’s largest enhanced geothermal power plant, in Beaver County, Utah.
As Bill Gates notes in his recent newsletter about the Fervo plant, most of the world’s geothermal “power plants today are located near the boundary between two tectonic plates, where you don’t have to drill as deep to find usable heat.” This restricts the number of places where geothermal energy is an option, but with innovative techniques, Fervo is looking to expand geothermal locations.
One such technique is horizontal drilling which is something often “used by the oil and gas industry to increase contact with a reservoir. The same principle applies to geothermal power. By accessing more heat from the same depth, Fervo’s plants cost less and are viable in more places than traditional geothermal plants. They’re also easier to scale up, which is crucial for meeting the world’s energy needs.”
If you picture clouds of steam rising up from the ground you’ve identified one of the few drawbacks to traditional geothermal – it uses a lot of water (water heated by underground heat is what powers turbines to create electricity). But another Fervo innovation, a closed loop system, addresses this – the company’s technology “captures all the water that would’ve been lost and recirculates it underground to keep the system running.”
Since these techniques are borrowed from the fossil fuel industry this makes geothermal energy an obvious place for those workers to migrate to. In fact, 60% of the company’s employees used to work in oil and gas, including its CEO.
“Fervo has already drilled 20 of the 24 planned geothermal wells at the facility for Phase I, and the plant is expected to start generating 100 MW of power next year. An additional 400 MW will come online in 2028.” For context a Fervo pilot project in Nevada that came online in 2023 produced 3.5 MW or about enough to power 2,600 homes.
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