Editors Note: This article was originally published in the Oct. 25, 2023 issue of the Chronicle Progress. Some information may be outdated.
Fervo Energy to develop more than 100 wells, says area may hold gigawatts of power
At least a gigawatt of clean power sits about 10,000 feet below the surface in an area just a dozen or so miles north of Milford in Beaver County.
Other sites sit not far away, including in nearby Millard County. One estimate says the state’s southwest contains at least 10 gigawatts of 24/7 clean energy in the form of ideal geologic formations for geothermal energy cultivation.
Conventional geothermal energy production could never successfully develop the sites—it would be too costly. But a new generation of geothermal techniques, using practices normally associated with shale oil drilling, are set to deliver yet another energy sector victory to Central Utah in the next few years.
State lawmakers received a preview of the next big renewable energy boom on Oct. 11 when a Fervo Energy representative provided an update on that company’s Cape Station project near Milford.
Ben Serrurier, a Fervo government affairs and policy manager, presented the company’s plans to the legislature’s Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology Interim Committee.
“We drill down horizontally. We stimulate the well. We increase the permeability of the well. We pump down water. It gets hot. We pump it out as steam,” Serrurier described the process. “What’s great about this is that we can replicate it. We can build out entire basins for geothermal. It’s clean, 24/7 power.”
And it’s the type of power highly rated in the marketplace—base load power.
In fact, to hear Serrurier talk about the new advances in geothermal production, it’s not generating the energy that will be the problem, but having enough transmission capacity to ship it onto customers.
Phase one of the Cape Station project is predicted to generate 90 megawatts of electricity by 2026. Phase two will deliver an additional 283 megawatts by 2028. Serrurier said the completed project could deliver a $2 billion economic impact to the area.
“It’s a first-of-its-kind project anywhere else in the world. It would be the second largest geothermal project in the U.S. when it’s completed,” he told lawmakers, some of whom attended a groundbreaking for the project on Sept. 25.
Serrurier said what makes Fervo’s work unique is that instead of going through the expensive ordeal of exploring for specific geologic formations to produce geothermal energy, next gen geothermal can be done practically anywhere there are “hot, dry rocks” such as granite, 8,000 to 12,000 feet below the surface.
Serrurier said the geologic formation where the project will be located can actually support a gigawatt-sized project.
“We’re limited by the transmission capacity,” he told legislators, adding that more transmission resources in the renewable corridor in that part of Beaver County would attract more investment in the future. The Cape Station project will connect to an existing line.
Asked by lawmakers about water use, he said the geothermal energy production itself is on a closed loop system that uses briny water found in deep underground reservoirs. He said no potable water was needed. No water would actually be consumed except during the well-drilling process.
Sen. Evan J. Vickers, Republican Senate majority leader whose district encompasses the western half of Millard County, asked about Fervo’s relationship with FORGE, the Department of Energy’s Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy, which sits adjacent to the Cape Station site. Serrurier said the long-term data collected at the research site gave Fervo the confidence to make a significant capital investment toward developing Cape Station.
While FORGE drilled a few wells, Serrurier says Fervo is developing more than 100 wells.
“There’s a ton of opportunity in Utah,” he said.
Fervo produced a pilot project in Nevada to prove the commercial viability of the next generation of geothermal development. He said the data coming out of the Cape Station test wells is far above the company’s initial expectations, though he declined to go into specifics.
Asked by one committee member if there was any energy storage component of the Cape Station project, Serrurier said there could be in the future. He said the company’s Nevada pilot project tested a concept where water was pumped into a well and held in place, building pressure and heat, eventually releasing its steam and a large amount of energy with it. The boost in output made storage look like a real possibility, though no commercial project has been developed as of yet.
“There’s a lot of work that needs to be done before it becomes a commercial product,” Serrurier said.
Fervo is a 6-year-old, privately-held company backed by venture capitalists, but counts as partners Princeton University, Stanford University, Rice University, Sandia National Laboratories, USGS and the U.S. Dept. of Energy, among many others.
The company’s website bills its workforce as composed of engineers, geologists and renewable power developers.
“We have decades of experience implementing more than a gigawatt of power across the western US, managing projects at the center of the shale revolution, and developing cutting-edge data analytics and intellectual property solutions,” the company states, adding that among its more important goals is building energy systems designed to address climate change.
