World's first commercial pressure geothermal plant secures funding
Sage Geosystems, a pioneer in pressure geothermal systems, has raised $97 million in Series B funding as it looks to advance geothermal power generation and energy storage on its way to building the world’s first commercial geothermal power generation facility, a company press release said.
As the world seeks cleaner sources of energy, geothermal could be a reliable option that provides energy without carbon emissions or other forms of waste. Geothermal energy solutions have been around for a while, though, and have been marred by location specificity, high water usage, and high initial costs.
Companies like Sage Geosystems are therefore looking to develop the next generation of geothermal energy that is much more efficient at power generation and water use. Also known as pressure or enhanced geothermal energy, the system looks to trap both heat and subsurface pressure to generate clean energy.
How does it work?
Pressure geothermal is deployed in areas with hot, dry, low-permeability rocks. Since these are more abundant under the Earth’s surface, the likelihood of deploying them increases. Water is injected into deep ‘lung fractures’ in the rock to extract heat and pressure. The fractures are called so because they expand and contract like the lung with Earth’s natural elasticity.
The energy is stored in these fractures as pressurized, hot water and can be extracted on demand, much like a water-based battery. However, the dual harvesting of heat and pressure can result in up to 50 percent more yield. By tapping into hot dry rock formations, Sage says it can unlock 130 times more geothermal source potential in the US alone.
“Pressure Geothermal is designed to be commercial, scalable, and deployable almost anywhere,” said Cindy Taff, CEO of Sage Geosystems. “This Series B allows us to prove that at commercial scale, reflecting strong conviction from partners who understand both the urgency of energy demand and the criticality of firm power.”
AI running on clean power
In August 2024, Sage Geosystems signed an agreement with Meta to deliver 150 MW of clean energy to its data centers via a geothermal plant in an area east of the Rocky Mountains. One of the leading funders of this funding round is Ormat Technologies, another geothermal company also working in recovered energy generation.
Ormat designs, manufactures, sells, and operates plants that use geothermal energy as well as its Ormat Energy Converter, a power generation unit that can convert low, medium, and high temperature heat into electricity and has a gross installed capacity of 3,400 MW.
“This investment builds on the strong foundation we’ve established through our commercial agreement and reinforces Ormat’s commitment to accelerating geothermal development,” said Doron Blachar, CEO of Ormat Technologies.
“Sage’s technical expertise and innovative approach are well aligned with Ormat’s strategy to move faster from concept to commercialization. We’re pleased to take this natural next step in a partnership we believe strongly in.”
Sage will use the funding to advance its next-generation geothermal energy technologies and build the world’s first commercial pressure geothermal power generation facility that will help build more AI data centers powered by clean energy.