Energy

Google switches on first-of-its-kind advanced geothermal project

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The surface footprint of Google's new advanced geothermal plant in Nevada is very compact
Google
The surface footprint of Google's new advanced geothermal plant in Nevada is very compact
Google
Cold water is injected into the fractured rock from below, where it rises into the second horizontal pipe, gathering heat from the rock and taking it back up to the surface
Google
The Nevada project uses a pair of long, horizontal pipes deep underground, with a section of pressure-fractured rock between them
Google
The pilot plant delivered a constant 3.4 MW in testing completed in July
Google
The technique promises to open up a lot more opportunities for this 24/7, ultra-reliable form of green power
Google
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Google has announced that its innovative advanced geothermal plant in Nevada is now operational and connected to the grid, pioneering an approach that promises to unlock clean, always-on geothermal energy across a much larger range of locations.

Where most geothermal projects need to seek out areas where highly-fractured, highly-permeable hot rocks are easy to get to, the Nevada plant, built in partnership with Fervo, is a pilot to prove a technique borrowed from the oil and gas industry.

As we wrote when Fervo announced its test results in July, the idea is to do for geothermal what fracking did for oil and gas, opening up resources that would otherwise be inaccessible. The company does this by drilling horizontally into deep rock, then injecting pressurized fluid to fracture the rock, creating the kind of fractured, permeable rock you need to harvest geothermal heat energy.

The Nevada project uses a pair of long, horizontal pipes deep underground, with a section of pressure-fractured rock between them
Google

It's a technique Fervo says can also help get a lot more out of an existing resource, and it radically reduces one of the biggest risks in geothermal energy: the risk of drilling way down into subterranean resources and finding they're not usable.

The Nevada plant makes a constant 3.4 megawatts of energy, bringing water up from 3,250-ft-long (990-m) horizontal bores some 8,000 ft (2,440 m) below the surface, at temperatures up to 191 °C (376 °F).

Google originally saw this project as a way to do two things. Firstly, to advance its own progress toward its stated goal of operating solely on clean energy by 2030. And secondly, as a way to give Fervo a commercial jump-start – a proof of concept it could use to accelerate the uptake of advanced geothermal.

And maybe on the second goal, it's made an impressive start. In September, Fervo broke ground on another, much larger project in Utah. The Cape Station project, scheduled for grid connection in 2026 and full-scale power production by 2028, scales things up considerably. It's aiming to produce around 400 MW of energy around the clock.

The US DoE estimates that geothermal could expand from its very humble beginnings to provide up to 120 GW of clean energy by 2050 – that'd be about 16% of the country's forecasted energy needs, delivered in a super-convenient, super-reliable fashion that's not dependent on weather and daily cycles like wind and solar. Fervo says that as it scales, it hopes to bring pricing down to the point where even deeper hot rock resources become exploitable.

The technique promises to open up a lot more opportunities for this 24/7, ultra-reliable form of green power
Google

And then there are other companies like Quaise, which is aiming to make geothermal energy available and economical from nearly anywhere on Earth, by using fusion-derived particle beam technology to drill deeper holes that anyone in history.

It's an exciting time for geothermal – and indeed, for all forms of clean energy – as the world mobilizes new and emerging technologies to clean up its act. It almost makes you think we might get there, and have a relatively habitable planet to leave for our great-grandchildren.

Source: Google

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9 comments
Jennifer Page
What is the fluid injected into the rocks? What guarantee is there that the water table won’t be contaminated? Much safer and cheaper to use fossil fuels provided by Mother Nature where hydroelectricity is not available.
jzj
@Jennifer -- Wow, I liked your first statement regarding water table contamination which is a legitimate question if this is unfamiliar terrain for you, but the second statement re fossil fuels being cheaper and safer makes me suspect you're a shill. Regarding water tables, at their deepest they are hundreds of feet below the surface, while fracking is done at thousands of feet, so they are not at all connected. Regarding fossil fuels being cheaper and safer, wrong on both counts: their "cheapness" is not true as renewables are cheaper; they're only perceived as cheaper because you're not including the trillions of government subsidies they receive annually, and some costs -- like climate change -- are deferred for later generations to suffer. As for safer, not at all, in any way, ever.
Peter Forte
Jennifer Page, Sarcasm? This project was initiated to assist in moving away from using carbon-generating fossil-fuels.
Trylon
@Jennifer Page, the fluid is water. It's in the video in the article.
TechGazer
If instead of water, they circulated CO2, there would be leaks, but the release might be less than from producing the energy from fossil fuels, and some CO2 would be locked into the rock. Actually, air might work too. Less efficient than water, but if groundwater contamination is an issue, it might still be efficient enough to be cost effective.
DaveWesely
Jennifer, the fluid injected into the rocks 8000 ft below ground is water. Water from aquifers is anywhere from 10 ft to 200 ft below ground. So unless the fracking water can magically percolate up 8000 feet through solid rock, it ain't gonna happen. Fossil fuels are neither safer or cheaper.
BillM
Termal plants are pretty hot!. The VA Hospital and the town of Yountville in California have been powering the hospital and area for quite sometime now I used to work for Johnson controls and that was one of the accounts I worked . A big steam generator that was so loud it hurt the nerves in your teeth. You couldn't stay in the room for more than ten minutes. BUt it make a heck of a lot of power.
Surfred
CO2 goes supercritical at much lower temp, so drilling to much shallower depths would make it easier to deploy in many more places.
Catweazle
So, similar to fracking for oil and gas in its ability to cause seismic effects and possibly pollute the ground water...