Fervo Showed Fractured Geothermal Works, Now Must Do It Bigger, Cheaper, and Soon

Abstract

Earlier this year, one of the founders of Fervo Energy announced that the geothermal innovator had reached its “Mitchell moment.” Jack Norbeck, chief technology officer for Fervo, likened a test where it used a pair of fractured wells to create water hot enough to generate electricity to the time when Mitchell Energy adopted slickwater fracturing to economically extract large amounts of gas from the ultratight rock in the Barnett Formation. “We have derisked all those core challenges, we reached the Mitchell Energy moment for geothermal,” Norbeck said. By doing all that and supplying 3.5 MW of electricity to the local grid that powers Google facilities, he announced that the firm’s enhanced geothermal system (EGS), had reached the highest level of technical readiness. Now comes the hard part—proving that technical triumph can be turned into something really big. The Mitchell moment in 1997 is remembered because it led to a series of innovations that allowed hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling to add enough oil and gas production to move global markets. What has been learned about fracturing in the decades since allowed oil industry veterans at Fervo to effectively use those tools to do what others had failed to accomplish—create high-volume EGS capable of generating power. One big difference between the moments is that Houston-based Fervo’s next step looks like a leap compared to Mitchell’s. After Mitchell’s moment, no innovation was required to sell shale gas from the Barnett or find the oilfield services needed to develop and produce it. Plus, it could learn from the many other companies working in tight rock plays. Its moment was the culmination of years of innovations by oil and service companies who continued finding ways to build on that advance. The endless arguments over who can claim credit for the innovations behind the Mitchell moment are evidence of the size of that support network. Today, Fervo’s efforts are also supported by the oil industry’s service sector and supply chain. Oil company Devon Energy, drilling contractor Helmerich & Payne, and pressure-pumping specialist Liberty Energy are among its early backers. And Fervo is benefiting from the government-funded research and site-evaluation work at the Utah Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) site, which is the key site for geothermal testing funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE). But unlike Mitchell, the path to commercial success will require Fervo and others to show they can create large operations to convert the heat they harvest into a cost-competitive commodity in a fast-changing, highly competitive industry. Sage Geosystems recently was added to the short list of geothermal startups with big projects, signing a deal with Meta to build a 150-MW plant somewhere east of the Rockies. Also high on the list is Eavor whose first commercial project will use its closed-loop heating technology for home heating and electric generation in Germany.