Originally published on Forbes.com on January 30, 2025

Advantages of EGS are high capacity, low carbon emissions, small land footprint, and flexibility to back up intermittent renewables like wind and solar.

A golden age is a period of strong growth and runaway success. The first energy transition innovation in this golden age series is liquefied natural gas (LNG) which took off in the U.S. in 2016. According to Rystad Energy, LNG demand will double in the next five years in East and South Asia due to rising economic growth.

The vision of grid batteries for energy storage also began in 2016, but is accelerating in the 2020s. Grid batteries are an integral part of intermittent renewables such as solar and wind, and their surge in countries like Australia and the U.S. looks like a golden age. Solar and grid batteries have come down in price and are now the cheapest form of renewables, and all energies, in most parts of the world.

But a third vision started waving a green flag in 2024. Enhanced Geothermal Systems or EGS is a U.S. invention that came out of shale oil and gas, which itself has been a revolution in the U.S. since 2003. Although very new, the excitement for EGS is palpable on both sides of the energy transition aisle. This vision is embraceable by the oil and gas industry because its technology is the main secret of success. It is also embraced by climate purveyors because the enormous clean energy resource of hot rock is now proven to be accessible.

Secrets Of Success Of EGS 

One secret: use the technology that appeared in 2003 and drove the shale revolution to great heights in the next 20 years. Drill two horizontal wells, side by side, in hot granite rock. Frac both wells to create a network of tiny fractures, plug them with sand to keep the fractures open, and when finished, circulate cold water down one well and across the network gap to the second well. The hot granite heats the water and when it rises to the surface of the second well as steam it can be used to drive turbines to create electricity.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) supported EGS financially and with a field experiment in Utah called Project FORGE. Drilling speeds have improved by 500 percent in the past three years as this research project seeks to raise commercial viability. The initial $220 million funding has been boosted by another $80 million from DOE through 2028.

A company called Fervo Energy, with support from DOE and Google, implemented the twin-well concept in Project Red outside of Reno, NV, in late 2023. Part of the electrical energy was provided to a local utility, including Google who were searching for a clean energy source for their local data centers. The project has supplied 3.5 MW to NV Energy on a consistent basis for a whole year.

Secrets behind Fervo’s success: One was a strong fracture connection between the two wells, which allowed cold water to be injected smoothly and continually. The second was about flexibility of the power coming out of the EGS system—it could be matched or synchronized, on a short-term basis, to changes needed by the utility.

The success of the pilot EGS system led Fervo to open the door to a much larger 80-well development in Beaver County, Utah: the 400 MW Cape Station geothermal plant, worth $2 billion. Efficiencies of operations improved. Drilling times dropped by 70 percent. Costs per well fell from $9.4 million to $4.8 million.

So far, 20 wells have been drilled. Phase one will come online in 2026 when the first 90 MW will be ready. In June of 2024, Southern California Edison agreed to buy 320 MW when it is available.

Fervo had raised $500 million in venture funding since 2017, before an additional $255 million in new funds was announced in December 2024, led by Capricorn’s Technology Impact Fund II. 

Is A Golden Age Coming For Geothermal

It’s hard to bet against this happening. 2024 was a breakout year for geothermal, as partly spelled out by Canary Media. Reasons are:

One, high-tech companies like Google and Microsoft have committed to being carbon-free by 2030.

Two, the rise of AI is based on data centers that can process trillions of data, words, or photos. One data center uses an amount of power equal to that used in 10,000 houses. Power demand is rising year by year as a flurry of new data centers are being built.

Three, vehicles, homes, buildings, and factories are going electric, however slowly, which also boosts the power demand.

Fourth, oil and gas companies have been reluctant to diversify into renewable energy production, except a few like BP and Shell who are based in Europe. But it is likely that such reluctant companies will embrace EGS because they know and have already used the new technology in their shale oil and gas exploits.

Five, geothermal energy has bipartisan support in a polarized U.S. Congress, since it’s a clean energy source and it will provide jobs suited to oil and gas personnel.

Six, the new energy secretary, Chris Wright, is the CEO of Liberty Energy, a well-servicing company that invested $10 million in Fervo.

Seven, President Trump has announced a national energy emergency, which is not true because the U.S. produces more oil and gas than any other country, and has been self-sufficient in energy since 2020. Also, the price of gasoline is lower than it’s been for 17 years, according to one observer.  But from what President Trump has said, one can infer he would prefer geothermal over solar and wind renewables.

Eight, according to Canary Media, the DOE calculates that geothermal provided 3.7 GW of U.S. electricity in 2024. But this will rise to 90 GW by 2050—an increase by 24 times.  

Nine, EGS could supply 800 GW of clean power worldwide, according to IEA, by 2050. This would be about 50 times what the world produced now.

An Airplane View Of The New Geothermal Layout By IEA            

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has pulled together a reasoned forecast called The Future of Geothermal Energy.

Here are the main points that relate to the oil and gas industry (extracted directly from the report):

• Geothermal can provide around-the-clock electricity generation, heat production, and storage.
• The full technical potential of next-generation geothermal systems to generate electricity is second only to solar PV among renewable technologies and sufficient to meet global electricity demand 140 times over.
• The oil and gas industry can play a key role in boosting the cost-effectiveness of geothermal. Up to 80% of the investment required in a geothermal project involves capacity and skills that are common in the oil and gas industry.
• Policy and innovation support, together with the expertise of the oil and gas sector, can help to bring down costs for new next-generation geothermal projects to levels that make it one of the cheapest dispatchable sources of low-emissions electricity.
• Delivering widespread and competitive geothermal will require specialized labor. The geothermal industry provides around 145, 000 jobs today and geothermal employment could rise more than sixfold to 1 million by the end of this decade, but there is a risk of a skills shortfall.

Altogether, it’s easy to picture this sudden, surging progress toward commercial viability will become a golden age for geothermal energy.

Other Futures For EGS

Following Utah’s success in Beaver County at FORGE and Fervo projects, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will offer 15 parcels in a lease sale on April 8 for geothermal opportunities. The sale of 10-year leases will include 51,000 acres of public land in Beaver, Iron, and Sevier counties

Schlumberger has inked a deal with Star Energy Geothermal (SEG), an Indonesian company, to identify better geothermal sites and to lower drilling and production costs in Indonesia. “Our vision is to be among the largest and leading geothermal companies in the world,” said Hendra Tan, president and director of Barito Renewables and group CEO of SEG.

The fundamental advantages, according to one report, are that EGS and other geothermal operations offer the highest capacity factor and will have a competitive cost of electricity (LCOE) compared with other renewable sources.  Additional positives are low carbon emissions, a small land footprint, and the ability to back up intermittent renewables like wind and solar.

Takeaways    

• Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) are the third in a series of energy transition innovations becoming a golden age. The other two are LNG and grid-scale battery storage.
• This vision can be embraced by the oil and gas industry looking to diversify to emissions-free operations.
• In 2024, field testing by FORGE, a DOE-sponsored EGS research laboratory, and Fervo have proven EGS to be a viable technology.
• The explosion of data centers has high-tech companies like Google in deals to purchase EGS electricity.
• In the U.S., multiple reasons are found that point to an emerging golden age for EGS.
• A global perspective by IEA supports the case but emphasizes collaboration with the oil and gas industry will be needed to pull it off.