Geothermal

Geothermal east of the Rockies? Meta and Sage team up to feed data centers

Geothermal east of the Rockies? Meta and Sage team up to feed data centers
A Sage Geosystems geothermal operation (Courtesy: Sage Geosystems)

Need renewable energy to power your data centers? I want to say “Look West, Fievel,” but now companies are developing east of the Rockies, too.

Houston-based geothermal startup Sage Geosystems and the artist formerly known as Facebook, Meta Platforms, have announced a new agreement to deliver up to 150 MW of new geothermal baseload power to support the latter’s data center growth. The deal would be the first use of next-generation geothermal power east of the Rocky Mountains, the companies said, without revealing its precise location. The first phase of the project is expected to be operational in 2027.

The U.S. has geothermal power plants in seven states, which generated about 16.46 terawatt hours (TWh) of geothermal electricity in 2023, a .5 TWh increase from 2022 and the highest amount ever recorded. That accounted for about 0.4% (17 billion KWh) of total U.S. utility-scale electricity generation last year.

The United States boasts roughly 3,900 MW of installed geothermal, about one-quarter of the world’s total capacity. Most of it is in California (66.6% of 2023 total U.S. geothermal generation) and Nevada (26.1%), with smaller concentrations of development in Utah (3.2%), Hawai’i (2.1%), Oregon (1.3%), Idaho (.5%), and New Mexico (.2%).

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) sees tremendous potential for geothermal development, suggesting there may be more than 100 GW of capacity in the lower 48 states.

Fittingly, the new announcement was made at the DOE’s Catalyzing Next Generation Geothermal Development Workshop. Executives from Sage and Meta joined U.S. Deputy Secretary of Energy David Turk and additional Biden-Harris Administration officials along with, investors, utilities, and other energy stakeholders to discuss the opportunity and growth of geothermal.

“The U.S. has seen unprecedented growth in demand for energy as our economy grows… And new industries like AI expand,” said U.S. Energy Deputy Secretary David Turk. “The Administration views this increased demand as a huge opportunity to add more clean, firm power to the grid and geothermal energy is a game-changer as we work to grow our clean power supply.”

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“This announcement is the perfect example of how the public and private sector can work together to make the clean energy transition a reality,” added Cindy Taff, CEO of Sage Geosystems. “We are thrilled to be at the forefront of the next generation of geothermal technology and applaud the DOE for supporting the commercialization of innovative solutions.”

Sage will utilize its proprietary Geopressured Geothermal System (GGS) to provide carbon-free power to Meta’s data centers. Sage says it validated the technology in the field in early 2022, which promises to harness geothermal energy almost anywhere. Hot dry rock is a vastly abundant resource compared to traditional hydrothermal formations, making Sage’s GGS technology more scalable than other approaches, the company says.

Sage previously announced the first geothermal project in Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) territory, a unique 3-MW baseload power and energy storage system in partnership with San Miguel Electric Cooperative in Christine, Texas. That project is expected to begin operating later this year and is slated to be the first commercial-scale deployment of GGS, according to the company. It was financed by a $17 million round of Series A funding by fracking pioneer Chesapeake Energy earlier this year.

“Our EarthStore facility in Christine will be the first geothermal energy storage system to store potential energy deep in the earth and supply electrons to a power grid,” boasted Sage Geosystems CEO Cindy Taff.

Don’t forget about Fervo

Another Houston geothermal company is also making deals with companies hoping to fuel their data centers with renewable power. Fervo Energy, which raised $244M led by Devon Energy earlier this year, started working with Google in 2021 to develop next-generation geothermal power and has since launched projects sending power back to the Nevada grid to power its own data center operations.

Earlier this summer, Fervo signed a pair of 15-year power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Southern California Edison to provide up to 320 MW of electricity from Fervo’s 400 MW Cape Station project under construction in Beaver County, Utah. The first 70 MW phase of the project should be online by 2026, and it should reach capacity by 2028.

The race for RECs, PPAs, and EAPAs

Meanwhile, Meta and its contemporaries in the data center space are gobbling up renewable energy certificates (RECs) left and right.

Meta recently partnered with Arevon Energy on a third Environmental Attributes Purchase Agreement (EAPA) for Arevon’s Heirloom Solar in Pike County, Indiana.

This month, Google announced a 1.5 GWp solar development contract with Energix Renewables and closed on a tax equity investment with Swift Current Energy on the massive 800 MWdc Double Black Diamond project in southern Illinois.

Microsoft and Pivot Energy signed a five-year framework agreement to develop up to 500 megawatts (MWac) of community-scale solar energy projects across the United States between 2025 and 2029. In May, Microsoft inked two 15-year PPAs with developer RWE for two new onshore wind farms in Texas with a combined capacity of 446 MW and shook hands with Canada’s Brookfield Asset Management on the largest single corporate PPA ever, agreeing to develop more than 10.5 gigawatts of new renewable energy capacity.

According to BloombergNEF, Amazon was the most active company in the PPA space last year, purchasing more solar and wind power than the next three companies combined and announcing 74 PPAs totaling 8.8 GW of capacity. The other top PPA purchasers: Meta (3 GW), LyondellBasell Industries (1.3 GW), and Google (1 GW).