Fervo has achieved record-breaking commercial flow rates at the site’s first well test. The 30-day test, a standard for geothermal, achieved a maximum flow rate of 107 kg/s at high temperature. The results correspond to over 10 MW of electricity production, triple that of the per production well output of Fervo’s Project Red in Nevada.
The successful well test demonstrates Fervo’s utility-scale power generation capabilities and establishes Cape Station as the most productive enhanced geothermal system in history. The geothermal power project is expected to start grid supply by 2026. Fervo had already signed a 15-year 320-MW PPA for the Cape Station project with Southern California Edison.
This record-breaking reservoir performance accompanies sustained drilling progress, allowing Fervo to develop the Cape Station wellfield ahead of schedule. Earlier this year, Fervo announced a 70% reduction in drilling time at a geothermal well in the Cape Station project compared to the first horizontal well drilling at Project Red in 2022.
At the same event, Fervo also disclosed that it had drilled a total of 15 wells at the Cape Station site and secured a $100 million construction loan from X-Caliber Rural Capital to accelerate its operations.
“Fervo continues to achieve technical milestones for geothermal development that experts predicted to be set decades from now,” said Tim Latimer, Fervo CEO and Co-Founder. “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.”
“Clean firm resources are critical to complete the carbon-free electricity portfolio and provide decarbonized energy around-the-clock,” said Jesse Jenkins, Assistant Professor and leader of the Zero-Carbon Energy Systems Research and Optimization (ZERO) Lab at Princeton University. “Fervo’s technical success commercializing advanced geothermal brings us one step closer to a clean, reliable grid.”
Fervo has achieved these milestones with support from a robust oil and gas workforce; fossil fuel workers have accounted for over 90% of on-site labor hours at Cape Station to date. Fervo looks to grow this labor pool by collaborating with local oilfield services companies to boost workforce development and local hiring across southwest Utah.
“The accomplishments that Fervo is announcing today confirm that next-generation geothermal is on the cusp of commercial success,” said Jeff Marootian, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “It’s this type of literal ground-breaking achievement that is paving the way to expand geothermal energy and realize its crucial role in our clean energy future.”
