Google To Acquire 400mw From Fervo For Enhanced Power Supply At New Data Centre
Geothermal energy company, Fervo Energy, has signed an agreement with Google for the purchase of nearly half a gigawatt of electricity to power a planned new data center in Utah, United States. In the agreement, announced on Tuesday, Google will buy 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 netzero emissions by 2030. The deal came after Google faced a difficult process in April, when it signed a deal with data centre 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 four gigawatts would about double the entire geothermal generating capacity in the U.S., according to a recent US 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 US 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 percent on Tuesday before traders took some profits on Wednesday.
