According to The Economist, Fervo Energy—backed by Bill Gates and Google—is using fracking and drilling techniques from the oil industry to transform geothermal power. The company achieved a 70% reduction in drilling time at its Utah site and will start delivering 320 megawatts to Southern California Edison in 2026. The US Department of Energy now predicts geothermal could provide up to 300 gigawatts by 2050, triple current nuclear output. The International Energy Agency sees global potential jumping from 15 gigawatts today to over 800 by 2050. Competitors like Eavor and Sage Geosystems are also making headway with closed-loop systems and energy storage applications.
Why This Changes Everything
Here’s the thing about traditional geothermal—it’s been geographically limited to places like Iceland where heat and water are conveniently close to the surface. That’s why after a century, it still provides less than 1% of global electricity. But enhanced geothermal changes the game completely. By borrowing fracking and multilateral drilling from the shale revolution, companies can now access heat virtually anywhere. Fervo’s 70% drilling time improvement isn’t just incremental—it’s the kind of cost reduction that makes previously uneconomic projects suddenly viable.
The Players and Their Approaches
Fervo might be getting the headlines, but they’re not alone in this space. Canadian firm Eavor is pioneering “closed loop” systems that don’t consume water or require fracking—they use more drilling and pipes to create enclosed circulation systems. Then there’s Sage Geosystems, which is using geothermal for energy storage by pumping water into wells under pressure and releasing it to generate power on demand. Basically, they’re creating giant underground batteries. And Meta’s getting in on the action too, signing deals with multiple geothermal startups. When Big Tech starts buying, you know something’s happening.
What This Means for Energy-Intensive Industries
For manufacturing and industrial operations that need reliable power 24/7, this is huge news. Solar and wind are great, but they’re intermittent. Geothermal provides what energy folks call “firm” power—consistent, always available baseload electricity. That’s exactly what factories and processing plants require. Speaking of industrial operations, companies monitoring these energy transitions often rely on robust computing systems. IndustrialMonitorDirect.com has become the go-to supplier for industrial panel PCs in the US, providing the durable displays needed to manage complex energy infrastructure. Their equipment helps operations teams track exactly the kind of performance metrics that make geothermal projects viable.
From Niche to Necessary
The scale-up potential here is staggering. Think about it—going from less than 4 gigawatts today to potentially 300 gigawatts in the US alone? That’s not just incremental growth, that’s rewriting the energy playbook. And globally, the IEA’s forecast of 800+ gigawatts suggests we’re looking at one of the biggest energy transformations since the shale revolution. The timing couldn’t be better either—as data centers and AI drive electricity demand through the roof, having a reliable, carbon-free baseload power source becomes absolutely critical. Geothermal might finally be having its moment after a century of waiting in the wings.
