Geothermal startup Fervo Energy has begun selling electricity from its Cape Station power plant to the grid, reaching a major commercial milestone one day earlier than planned.
The company said Thursday that electricity sales began September 30 after the plant was connected to the grid about a week earlier. The initial phase represents roughly one-third of the planned 100-megawatt facility.
Geothermal Power Scales Up
Fervo said the broader Cape Station site could eventually support as much as 4 gigawatts of electricity generation, significantly expanding its potential beyond the initial project.
“No team has ever built a project like this anywhere in the world, and we did it ahead of schedule,” Fervo co-founder and CEO Tim Latimer said in a statement.
The first block took 23 months to progress from groundbreaking to commercial operations. Fervo is now aiming to reduce construction time for future blocks to as little as 18 months as it refines its development process.
That faster timeline could be particularly relevant to data center operators facing growing electricity demand from artificial intelligence infrastructure. Geothermal projects can also be developed in stages, allowing additional generation capacity to come online as electricity requirements increase.
From groundbreaking to commercial operations, the first block at Cape Station took 23 months to complete. As Fervo refines its process, it is aiming to complete future blocks in as little as 18 months.
That sort of speed to power should appeal to power-starved data center operators, who have been scouring every part of the energy sector for generating capacity. Geothermal can also be developed in phases, similar to how data centers are developed, allowing hyperscalers to bring racks online as demand ramps up.
Google, Southern California Edison, and others have committed to buying power from Fervo’s Cape Station project, which is located in Utah.
The company was founded in 2017 and adapted drilling techniques and technologies developed in the oil and gas industry for geothermal applications. Fervo raised more than $1.3 billion from investors including Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Congruent Ventures, and Capricorn Investment Group before going public in May.
Its IPO raised $1.9 billion after the offering was increased, giving the company additional capital as it scales its geothermal projects.
With its first Cape Station block now selling electricity commercially, Fervo has moved enhanced geothermal technology another step toward large-scale power generation.