Google Agrees to Buy 396 MW of Geothermal Power from Fervo

Google has agreed to buy 396 megawatts of electricity from Fervo’s Cape Station geothermal power plant in Utah. The plant is expected to come online in 2028 and will help power a planned new Google data center in the state.

Under the power purchase agreement, Google can buy an additional 600 megawatts from Fervo through June 2030. The companies have worked together for more than five years, and Google has purchased electricity from Fervo since the startup’s early operations. Google also invested in Fervo’s most recent funding round before the geothermal company went public.

Fervo is permitted to develop up to 2 gigawatts of geothermal energy at Cape Station. A third-party engineer said the site contains enough heat to generate twice that amount, or 4 gigawatts, according to Fervo’s senior vice president of strategy, Sarah Jewett. If fully developed, that capacity would approximately double the geothermal generating capacity of the entire U.S., according to a recent U.S. Department of Energy report.

Enhanced geothermal technologies can reach deeper heat sources. The same report says the U.S. could generate up to 57 terawatts of electricity using those technologies. The agreement comes as Google and other hyperscalers seek additional electricity sources for data centers. Google has pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2030.