Fervo brings the first, next-gen geothermal power to the grid to satiate the AI boom

Startup Fervo Energy flipped the switch on its Cape Station power plant in Utah, officially bringing the first next-generation geothermal power to the grid at a utility scale, the Houston-based startup announced Thursday.

The U.S. faces an unprecedented demand surge for power from the AI boom and more, and next-gen geothermal power is now part of the mix. Geothermal offers both clean energy and reliable baseload power without the intermittency issues of wind and solar.

Bill Gates-backed Fervo, which went public in May with the biggest clean-energy IPO ever, touts technology that combines old-school geothermal science with modern oil-drilling and fracking techniques to develop reservoirs and power plants anywhere the customers want—as opposed to traditional geothermal power, dating back over 100 years, which relies on naturally occurring reservoirs.

Fervo focuses on enhanced geothermal systems (EGS, not to be confused with ESG), designed to address the scalability limitations of traditional geothermal with the modern........

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