Fervo is a privately held American geothermal-technology startup valued at about $1.4bn, backed by Google and other high-powered tech investors. It is the leading enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) firm, using hydraulic fracturing and multilateral drilling technology borrowed from the shale-oil industry to tap hot impermeable rock.
The company has acquired over half a million acres of geothermal mineral rights across the United States, which it sees as over 50 gigawatts of opportunity. Its engineers drill deep wells vertically before rotating the bit horizontally, creating parallel wells connected by artificial fractures in the rock.
Fervo has demonstrated a 70% year-on-year reduction in drilling times, which translates directly into lower costs. A paper published in Nature Reviews Clean Technology in January 2025 by Roland Horne of Stanford University reckoned that EGS power costs will be competitive with rival energy sources by 2027.
Fervo will start producing electricity in 2026 in the first phase of a 500-megawatt deal with the power division of Shell and a Californian utility—the largest commercial contract agreed for geothermal electricity in the industry's history. Its operations are based near Milford, Utah.
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