Geothermal energy company Fervo notched another win as Google agreed to buy nearly half a gigawatt of electricity to power a planned new data center in Utah.
The power purchase agreement, announced Tuesday, commits Google to buying 396 megawatts from Fervo’s Cape Station power plant in Utah, which is expected to come online in 2028. Google has the option through June 2030 to buy an additional 600 megawatts.
The deal arrives as Google and other hyperscalers are scouring the country for new sources of electricity. For years, Google has been one of the larger purchasers of clean energy in the U.S. and elsewhere, buying electricity from wind, solar, and batteries to make good on its promise to reach net-zero emissions by 2030.
But in April, that goal became harder to reach after Google inked a deal with data center developer Crusoe for 933 megawatts of natural gas power in Texas.
The Fervo deal could help Google fuel its AI ambitions without significantly imperiling its net zero goal.
Fervo is permitted to develop up to 2 gigawatts of geothermal energy at Cape Station, but Sarah Jewett, Fervo’s senior vice president of strategy, told TechCrunch in May that a third-party engineer said the site holds enough heat to generate twice as much electricity.
If fully developed, those 4 gigawatts would about double the entire geothermal generating capacity in the U.S., according to a recent U.S. Department of Energy report. It’s possible that Google’s gigawatt deal could grow even larger if Fervo’s operations go as planned.
Enhanced geothermal technologies, like the kind Fervo has developed, can tap deeper sources of heat. Using those technologies, the U.S. could generate up to 57 terawatts of electricity, according to the report.
Fervo and Google’s new deal adds to the pair’s longstanding relationship. The companies have been working together for more than five years, with Google buying some of Fervo’s first electrons. Recently, Google invested in Fervo’s last funding round before the geothermal startup went public.
Though Fervo’s stock popped on its first day of trading, it shed those gains and more over the last few months. News of the Google deal, though, drove the stock up about 30% yesterday before traders took some profits today.
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Tim De Chant is a senior climate reporter at TechCrunch. He has written for a wide range of publications, including Wired magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Ars Technica, The Wire China, and NOVA Next, where he was founding editor.
De Chant is also a lecturer in MIT’s Graduate Program in Science Writing, and he was awarded a Knight Science Journalism Fellowship at MIT in 2018, during which time he studied climate technologies and explored new business models for journalism. He received his PhD in environmental science, policy, and management from the University of California, Berkeley, and his BA degree in environmental studies, English, and biology from St. Olaf College.
You can contact or verify outreach from Tim by emailing tim.dechant@techcrunch.com.
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