Google-backed startup achieves commercial geothermal breakthrough

In 2021 the US Department of Energy awarded $12 million to seven projects intended to accelerate the development of geothermal potential including $2 million to the University of New Mexico and $1.5 million to Montana State University. Geothermal mining has been a topic of keen interest in New Mexico and Montana for decades where radioactive decay heats groundwater. 

Now, using an enhanced geothermal system at its Project Red site in northern Nevada Google-financed Fervo Energy completed a full-scale, 30-day well test able to generate 3.5 megawatts or enough electricity to power over 2,600 homes full time. Fervo employs a hydro-shearing process and believes it can deliver about 400 megawatts by 2028 or enough electricity to power 300,000 homes at once from half a dozen other sites across the western US.