Many environmentally-conscious homeowners have been turning to geothermal heat pumps in recent years to heat and cool their homes with minimal negative impact on the planet. Now, one company is showing how geothermal can be used for utility-scale electricity generation as well, Utility Drive reported.
Fervo Energy announced that it achieved record-breaking test levels of productivity at its Cape Station, Utah plant and declared "Cape Station as the most productive enhanced geothermal system in history."
The 30-day test "achieved a maximum flow rate of 107 kg/s at high temperature, enabling over 10 MW of electric production," the company said. It went on to explain that this result meets the goal that the National Renewable Energy Laboratory set for geothermal plants by 2035, getting there more than a decade early.
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"Fervo continues to achieve technical milestones for geothermal development that experts predicted to be set decades from now," Fervo CEO Tim Latimer said in a statement. "At a time when 24/7 clean energy is urgently needed, Fervo has shown that the geothermal industry is ready to meet that need with power projects that can come online this decade."
Geothermal energy is heat energy extracted from the Earth's crust — and unlike other energy sources that are extracted from the Earth, such as petroleum and methane gas, it is completely renewable and produces no planet-overheating air pollution at the point of use.
Because it is renewable and pollution-free, geothermal energy could be a big part of our clean energy future. Although it currently accounts for only around 0.5% of the total utility-scale power generation in the United States, technological breakthroughs like Fervo's could help speed up its broader adoption, lessening our reliance on dirty energy sources.
The Cape Station plant is set to come online in 2026.
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