TL;DR
Most clean power has a schedule problem: the sun sets and the wind drops. Heat deep underground does neither, and it is not only found near volcanoes; it is under almost everywhere, if the drill goes deep enough. Fervo Energy drills sideways through hot, dry rock in Utah, pumps water through cracks it makes, and turns the heat into electricity around the clock. Its first 33-megawatt block, roughly enough for 25,000 homes, has been in commercial operation since Sept. 30. On Nov. 9, in its first earnings report as a public company, Fervo laid out a 396-megawatt, 15-year contract with Google, twelve times the size of the block now running, with first power due in mid-2028, plus an option for about 600 megawatts more that would bring the total near one gigawatt. It also published a path to cheaper wells, the number that decides whether this spreads beyond one Utah valley (all company figures). We first covered Fervo's hot-rock power reaching the grid in October (our story). To see our odds on when Google's share comes online and when drilled heat gets cheap enough to go anywhere, plus the timeline of breakthroughs that leads there, subscribe.
Below the line, for paid subscribers: The full story: where it stands, how we got here and what's dated next; our labeled speculation on what it adds up to; and every source.