Fervo was featured on the 2023 edition of this list and has made steady progress since. In fact, it’s now building the world’s largest enhanced geothermal power plant, Cape Station, in southwestern Utah.
Southern California Edison, Shell Energy North America, and others have agreed to buy electricity from the 500-megawatt–capacity project starting next year. That’s enough energy to power more than 400,000 average-sized US homes. As of 2022, the US had almost 4,000 megawatts of installed geothermal energy, meaning Cape Station would be equivalent to around 12% of the country’s geothermal capacity.
Fervo also benefits from a rare political sweet spot: US Energy Secretary Chris Wright, who was one of Fervo’s early investors while at the energy services firm Liberty Energy, has listed geothermal as one of his top priorities.
Caveats
Any fracking project comes with the risk of earthquakes—a hazard that has plagued previous geothermal efforts in South Korea and Switzerland.
