In their search for carbon free energy in the mains, Technology Titans Google and Meta invest in geothermal energy to feed data centers as demand grows nationwide.
In Nevada, Google advanced towards its non -carbon power goal for its data centers and office campuses by 2030 with the approval on May 13 by the State Public Services Commission for an unprecedented energy supply agreement (ESA) to help promote its data centers and the cloud region in the state, says Chris Mussett, a Google spokesman for Mountain View.
“The United States Energy Department found that geothermal energy could provide up to 120 Gigawatts of reliable and flexible generation capacity in the United States by 2050 and generate more than 16% of the planned electricity needs of the United States,” says a Google block.
Data centers under construction in North America grew more than 60% from 2016 to 2023, according to the report of the labor force of the census of the United States Census Office. Much of the increasing demand comes from the technological sector that is presented to adopt the computer and the cloud, the growth of manufacturing and the need to load millions of electric vehicles. The firm of Consulting Peak Strategies provides that the maximum demand in summer will increase 38,000 megavatios in the United States for the next five years.
ESA unlock geothermal capacity
The food supply agreement, announced last year, will add 115 MW of geothermal power improved 24/7 generated by the Geothermal Developer Fervo Energy, based in San Francisco and delivered by Nevada Energy, according to Musett.
“This represents almost 30 times a growth of the geothermal capacity enabled by Google, as it announced its success as a commercial pilot with Fervo in 2023,” says Mussett.
The ruling also approves the first net transition rate in the country (CTT), a new utility rate that allows public services and customers to enter long -term energy agreements that allow investments in new network network network technologies, including geothermal energy.
The ESA allows Google “to receive an exclusive electric service under the CTT of the improved geothermal project of the 115 MW Corsac station developed by Fervo, once it reaches the commercial operation”, note of the commission. The long -term energy supply period begins when Fervo reaches commercial operations and lasts 15 years.
The Corsac Station project planned in Nevada is a single phase development that starts in 2026 and will come into commercial operation by 2027, according to Power Technology.
In 2023, Fervo Energy launched Exploration Drilling in Beaver County, Utah in Cape Station, a Geothermal Energy project of next generation, which offered 400 MW of Carbon Electricity 24/7 in 2026 and reach commercial scale until 2028, notice Fervo’s website. Researchers estimate that some parts of Utah have more than 10 GW of high quality geothermal reserves, he adds.
Fervo did not respond to the Enr and Google queries refused to comment on questions about the development of Corsac Station.
The ESA will not give rise to the cost ascents for existing customers, as it will achieve “stability and efficiency” that tends to reduce the costs, depending on the commission records.
After studying Google’s request, the Commission staff determined that through ESA “Google provides significant financial support, which facilitates new technology” developed by Fervo through its next generation geothermal project that could become CRITICAL for Nevada Energy and its customers in the future.
He adds that “the Fervo project would provide an incremental opportunity to hire renewable energy resources that are not intermittent and that they can help to avoid possible operating costs and difficulties associated with fulfilling the growing standard requirement of renewable portfolio with the existing types of resources.”
Explosive growth
Met also supports the development of key geothermal projects. Meta is associated with Sage Geosystems, based on Houston, a basic basis company and energy storage, to develop a 150 MW geothermal energy project through advanced fracking technology. Sage would not reveal the cost of the project.
The first phase will provide 8 MW of power for 2027 and the second phase will deliver up to 150 MW, with an option for 200 additional megavatios, says Cindy Taff, CEO of Sage Geosystems.
The first phase must be completed and produced by electricity for 2027, adds.
Currently, the project team works with Meta, ending a location in the east of the Rocky Mountains, and shortly afterwards, “the front engineering design of the wells and the facilities will begin,” says TAFF.
The biggest challenges for the team are “interconnection to the utility network and ordering long lead equipment, such as the Rankine Organic Center (ORC) power plant,” he says.
The ORC team will be evaluated based on the cost and efficiency once a site has been selected as “the room temperature is a design entrance for the ORC power plant,” adds TAFF.
Sage plans to hire a fracture service company in the oil and gas industry to stimulate its wells through the technology of fracture of gravity that owns, with the fractures that occur at the pressure and without sand or any other.
Sage and Meta are currently running the project, but “Sage will hire several companies to provide equipment and services once we are at the end of the design and construction phases,” says TAFF.
