A Geothermal Energy Plant Has Been Successfully Tested in the United States
Fervo Energy, a geothermal company, has announced the completion of a month-long trial of their underground heat energy technology in Nevada. According to company representatives, their experimental installation generated 3.5 MW of electricity, as reported by Bloomberg.
Geothermal power plants produce zero carbon emissions and can operate at any time of day or year, making them a highly promising sector in green energy development. Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), such as Fervo, expand the range of locations suitable for harnessing geothermal energy. This has long been a goal for the renewable energy industry. The Fervo Energy installation has demonstrated for the first time that geothermal technology can work on a commercial scale—a goal scientists have been striving to achieve since the 1970s.
Geothermal energy involves extracting electricity from hot sources, particularly thermal underground water. However, natural geothermal technology requires a combination of heat, fluid, and permeable rock, with the latter sometimes posing challenges. Fervo claims to have successfully drilled a pair of horizontal wells for commercial geothermal production, reaching nearly a kilometer in length and a temperature of 191°C.
Fervo is expected to connect its Project Red well to the grid later this year, providing power to Google data centers and certain other infrastructure components, as per the agreement made between the companies in 2021. The company hopes to replicate its success at a facility in Utah. If Fervo achieves similar results and successfully updates the design to maximize productivity, the well is projected to generate enough electricity to power 300,000 homes simultaneously (approximately a quarter of all homes in Utah).
Currently, geothermal energy accounts for 0.4% of electricity production in the United States. The U.S. Department of Energy is also focusing efforts on reducing the cost of geothermal energy by 90% to $45 per megawatt-hour by 2035. They have announced plans to provide clean energy to 65 million American households.