Fervo, Sage Geosystems tap energy giants to scale next-gen geothermal

September 08, 2025 at 7:30 AM
Maria Gallucci
www.canarymedia.com
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Two of the leading startups working on advanced geothermal energy just struck deals with established industrial giants — moves that will help the companies accelerate their efforts to harness the potentially abundant source of carbon-free energy from underground. Last week, Fervo Energy said it had picked oilfield…

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Fervo, Sage Geosystems tap energy giants to scale next-gen geothermal

Sage’s deal means it can bring its first commercial power project online sooner, while Fervo’s move helps push its Cape Station facility closer to competition.

ByMaria Gallucci
8 September 2025

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    Aerial view of power plant at sunset backed by mountains
    Sage Geosystems is partnering with Ormat Technologies, whose McGinness Hills geothermal plant in Nevada is pictured above. (Ormat)
    Two of the leading startups working on advanced geothermal energy just struck deals with established industrial giants —moves that will help the companies accelerate their efforts to harness the potentially abundant source of carbon-free energy from underground.
    Last week, Fervo Energysaid it had pickedoilfield services giant Baker Hughes to provide crucial equipment for the startup’s Cape Station geothermal plant in Utah, aselection that brings the500-megawatt project closer to its2028completion goal. Baker Hughes will design and deliver equipment for five power-generating units totaling300MWin capacity, which will operate with Fervo’s fracking-based​“enhanced geothermal system.”
    The news followed anAug.28announcementthat startup Sage Geosystems is partnering with Ormat Technologies, amajor global developer of conventional geothermal plants. The agreement will enable Sage to deploy its next-generation technology at one of Ormat’s existing sites in Nevada orUtah.
    Teaming up with Ormat accelerates Sage’s timeline to build its first commercial power-generation facility by about two years. It’s now targeting to bring the plant online by late2026or early2027, said Cindy Taff,CEOofSage.
    “For us, the ability to scale faster with Ormat is huge,” Taff told Canary Media.​“But it’s also agreat opportunity for Ormat to reach adeeper [geothermal] resource than what they’re targeting now.”
    Geothermal energy represents only about0.4% oftotal U.S. electricity generation —largely because existing technology is constrained by geography. Today’s geothermal plants rely on naturally occurring reservoirs of hot water and steam, found only in places like Northern California and Nevada, to spin their turbines and generate power.
    Technological advances are making it possible to deploy geothermal in less obvious areas, breathing fresh life into the decades-old industry. In recent years, the carbon-free energy source has seen asurge of investment and bipartisan policy supportamid soaring demand for electricity from data centers, factories, and electric vehicles.
    Fervo and Sage, both based in Houston, have previouslyinkeddealsto supply the tech giants Google and Meta, respectively, with hundreds of megawatts of clean, around-the-clock power for their sprawling U.S. operations.
    A crane and under-construction facility in an open space in front of a mountain rangePhase 1 of Fervo Energy's Cape Station project is well underway in Beaver County, Utah. (Fervo)
    Next-generation geothermal also benefits from the fact that it shares the same workforce and supply chain as oil and gas companies, an industry now heavily favored in Washington, D.C. The sweeping budget law that President Donald Trump signed in Julylargely preserves key tax creditsfor geothermal power plants —despiteslashing incentives for wind and solar —and the Trump administration is pushing tofast-track environmental reviewsfor all types of geothermal projects.
    “Geothermal has always enjoyed support from both sides of the aisle,” said Taff, who was previously avice president at fossil fuel company Shell.​“But now there’s alot of momentum for the industry.”

Fracking rocks to harness heat

Sage’s approach to geothermal energy involves tapping into both heat and pressure from hot, dry rocks found deep underground. To start, the company drills wells and fractures rocks to create artificial reservoirs that it pumps full of water. Sage cycles the water in and out of the fracture —like inflating and deflating aballoon —and can jettison the liquid to the surface to drive turbines and produce electricity.

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    The startup’s partnership with Reno, Nevada-based Ormat will allow Sage to access land and power-plant equipment and to connect to the grid far more quickly than if the startup set up anew site on its own. The companies are looking to install the next-generation system at afacility where Ormat’s older conventional wells are declining in capacity.
    “In general, plants may operate below capacity due to acombination of factors, such as changes in the geothermal resource over time,” said Smadar Lavi, Ormat’s vice president and head of investor relations andESGplanning and reporting.​“These sites are well-suited for piloting Sage’s technology, as it offers the potential to unlock additional production from existing assets.”
    Terra Rogers of the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force said that Ormat’s decision to expand beyond its traditional hydrothermal resources and into next-generation tech represents​“an important step, and we’ve all been waiting for it.” Rogers, who leads the advocacy group’ssuperhot rockgeothermal program, called Ormat the​“grandparents of geothermal,” given that the company has been around for60years and operates more than190geothermal plants globally.
    As part of the agreement, Ormat can license Sage’s technologies for power generation as well as energy storage. The startup uses asimilar setup to store excess grid energy. But instead of drilling deep into high-temperature rocks, Sage pumps water into shallower formations that aren’t as hot, since heat isn’t needed for storage. Pressure builds up underground and can be released later, when power demand spikes, to spin apinwheel-likePeltonturbine and send electricity back to thegrid.
    “The idea that [Ormat] chose Sage specifically, with their storage technology, is also very telling for the needs of the grid in the West,” Rogers said, adding that it​“complements existing or intermittent forms of renewables” like wind andsolar.
    Sage recently finished building its first commercial storage project on the site of acoal plant owned by San Miguel Electric Cooperative in Christine, Texas. The facility, which is expected to connect to the Texas grid in December, will be able to discharge3MWfor four to six hours at atime, according toTaff.
    Equipment in an open field on a cloudy daySage Geosystems' geothermal facility in Christine, Texas (Sage)
    The startup plans to perform ademonstration of its electricity-generating tech in the first quarter of2026in Starr County, Texas, in partnership with the U.S. Air Force. Sage is also evaluating potential sites east of the Rocky Mountains to develop its150-MWproject withMeta.
    Fervo, meanwhile, continues drilling away at its Cape Station project in Beaver County, Utah, which has been under construction for almost twoyears.
    The eight-year-old company said an initial100-MWinstallation is poised to start delivering power to the grid in2026. An additional400MWis slated to come online in2028, aportion of which will use the new equipment from Baker Hughes. The startup’s recent supply deal comes just months after Fervo said it secured$206million in new financingfor the Cape Station project.
    “Fervo designed Cape Station to be aflagship development that’s scalable, repeatable, and aproof point that geothermal is ready to become amajor source of reliable, carbon-free power in the U.S.,” Tim Latimer, Fervo’sCEOand cofounder, said in aSept.2statement.
  • Geothermal
  • Clean energy
    Maria Gallucciis a senior reporter at Canary Media. She covers emerging clean energy technologies and efforts to electrify transportation and decarbonize heavy industry.
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