Fervo’s Cape Station geothermal development in Beaver County. (Courtesy of Fervo)
An ongoing geothermal project in southern Utah has the eyes and the money of big companies searching for cleaner energy sources — including tech giant Google.
Fervo’s Cape Station project has been under construction in Beaver County since 2023, drilling what’s expected to become the largest enhanced geothermal system in the world. The first phase of the project goes online in 2026, and a $462 million private investment announced this month is keeping that goal on track.
Infrastructure supporting about 500 megawatts of energy is currently under construction in the state. However, Sarah Jewett, senior vice president of strategy at Fervo, said the company’s permit with the Bureau of Land Management allows it to build to produce two gigawatts.
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“Not only do we love Utah, we love southwest Utah, really, specifically, it’s been a really terrific place to construct a project,” Jewett said. “And I think more and more we’re leaning into Utah being the hub of the geothermal revitalization that is happening right now.”
The company has already signed contracts with California customers for the planned 500 megawatts after the California Public Utilities Commission mandated utilities to procure 1,000 megawatts of geothermal and 1,000 megawatts of long-duration storage.
In 2024, Fervo announced two 15-year agreements with Southern California Edison for 320 of those megawatts, which have the capacity of powering 350,000 homes in the area. Another 31 megawatts are committed to Shell, and 18 megawatts to Clean Power Alliance.
While Google isn’t on that public list of energy customers from the Cape Station project, the company has been drawn by the potential of a carbon-free energy resource that could be turned on and off on demand. In 2021, Google announced a partnership with Fervo to help launch its commercial pilot in Nevada.
“I think Google’s interest is really materializing now as its first-time contribution to the corporate equity at Fervo because they are really showing their long-term interest in geothermal, and their belief that geothermal is going to be a big part of their energy future,” Jewett said.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has expressed deep interest in geothermal, especially after launching Operation Gigawatt, his plan to double the state’s energy production in a decade. According to Jewett, the project fits into his goal of exporting energy from the state.
“We would be excited to ultimately sell power into the state of Utah once we’ve been able to bring down costs,” she said. “But there are really high volume power demands all over the American West and I think Utah understands that being the source of the generation is not a bad thing.”
The project has also had a substantial impact on the local economy, creating new jobs and making an effort to localize its supply chain as much as possible, Jewett said.
The state wasn’t a part of this funding series, said Emy Lesofski, director of the Utah Office of Energy Development, but is excited about its prospects.
“Our state is lucky to have a unique geography that brings with it a lot of geothermal energy potential,” Lesofski said in a written statement. “Geothermal is a sustainable source of baseload power, and we welcome projects that further develop our geothermal resources.”
During recent legislative sessions, lawmakers focused largely on establishing a framework to develop nuclear resources in the state. They have also taken steps to protect fossil fuel power, praising it for being available at all times, and have discussed further regulating solar and wind projects, criticizing them for their intermittency.
But, they also approved $1.7 million for geothermal research and next general session may consider other geothermal-related bills, including one determining who has a claim to geothermal rights in Utah.
Jewett says every state entity that has collaborated with Fervo “has been an absolute dream to work with.”
“Of course, building any large infrastructure project is hard, but we found people in Utah to be incredibly committed to ensuring that the project gets built in the right way, both for the state of Utah and for the people in the surrounding area,” she said.
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