Fervo Energy will supply almost 400MW from its Cape Station project to a Google data centre in Utah, the largest agreement yet signed for next-generation geothermal power.
The deal covers the second phase of Cape Station, in southwest Utah, which is due to be running in about two years. Fervo is investing over $2bn in the project, which could become the largest enhanced geothermal system in the world when it completes in 2028.
Enhanced geothermal drills deep into hot dry rock and circulates fluid to bring heat to the surface, using techniques adapted from oil and gas. Conventional geothermal depends on natural features such as hot springs, which limits where plants can go. Geothermal supplies just 0.4 per cent of US electricity today.
Why the offtake matters more than the megawatts
First-of-a-kind facilities struggle to attract financing without a named buyer. Securing Google removes that obstacle for phase two before construction ramps.
Fervo is currently building the first 100MW phase and expects test power from a 33MW unit in the fourth quarter of this year. Phase 1 is set to deliver power at $7,000 per kilowatt, with phase 2 at $5,500 per kW, according to figures previously given by Sarah Jewett, Fervo’s chief operating officer. The companies did not disclose the terms of the new agreement.
Fervo went public in May. Its shares rose 15 per cent on Tuesday morning after the Google announcement.
A partnership that predates the technology
Google and Fervo signed their first agreement to develop next-generation geothermal in 2021. Two years later Fervo turned on a 3.5MW commercial pilot in Nevada, still the largest operating enhanced geothermal system in the country. Sage Geosystems recently began producing power from a 3MW pilot in Texas.
The two companies had already signed a 115MW power purchase agreement with NV Energy, the Las Vegas utility, to supply Google’s Nevada data centres.
Tim Latimer, Fervo’s chief executive and co-founder, said customers like Google need energy resources “that can be deployed at scale, operate around the clock, and deliver where power is needed”.
The option is bigger than the deal
Google hasn’t decided where the Utah data centre will sit. Lucia Tian, Google’s director of advanced energy technologies, said the company lacks clarity on how the power will serve a specific facility, though it will be “a foundational building block of power generation for a data center presence in Utah”.
Under the agreement Google can expand its Cape Station purchase by around 600MW by June 2030. A separate arrangement gives Google right of first refusal on up to 3GW from certain new geothermal plants Fervo develops.
That optionality is the part worth watching. It signals that data centre demand, rather than utility procurement, now sets the pace for a technology the sector spent a decade treating as a research problem.
