Fervo's Order Book Signals Geothermal's Path to Scale
With nearly $12 billion in contracted revenue and a major Google project underway, Fervo is demonstrating the deployment potential of enhanced geothermal.
Fervo is moving beyond the prototype phase, reporting $11.9 billion in contracted revenue in its third-quarter earnings report, as TechCrunch first reported. This is a significant jump from the $7.2 billion reported last quarter.
The company is currently leveraging its Cape Station site in Utah, which TechCrunch reports could generate 8.4 gigawatts of electricity. Fervo has already connected a 100 megawatt plant to the grid and is on track to complete a 396 megawatt plant for Google, known as Cape Google 400, by the end of 2028. CEO and co-founder Tim Latimer stated during an earnings call that the Google project will be grid-connected, allowing Google to use the power or sell it to other customers.
Fervo's strategy relies on "GeoBlocks," which are clusters of deep, hot wells capable of generating 15 megawatts of gross power each. These blocks are designed to match the power requirements of individual data center halls, allowing for phased construction. While the first completed GeoBlock generated 33 megawatts, more recent ones have reached 50 megawatts, TechCrunch reports.
Deployment costs are trending downward. Fervo stated the first phase of Cape Station cost $7,000 per kilowatt of capacity, while the Google project is priced at $5,500 per kilowatt. Fervo's long-term goal is to reach $3,000 per kilowatt, a figure that TechCrunch notes would allow the company to significantly undercut natural gas power prices.
Despite the growth in orders, Fervo remains in an early business stage. TechCrunch reports the company ended the quarter with an operating loss of $43.7 million, though it maintains $1.9 billion in cash and cash equivalents against $301.6 million in long-term debt.